2 ms·

> You can't get any higher level than SQL. Can’t you? Wouldn’t higher level be a goal oriented natural language like “what’s the most popular music file in the

> You can't get any higher level than SQL. Can’t you? Wouldn’t higher level be a goal oriented natural language like “what’s the most popular music file in the database” and an AI agent just figured out how to give you the answer?

ninetyninenine 2y ago
Well. You know what I mean. AI is also unreliable. Place chatGPT over a database and it's going to start lying about what is in it eventually. That being said my statement likely isn't strictly true even when you account for ML. I'm sure there are even higher level languages that are not probability based and thus deterministic with expected results. But in terms of a software developers average experience, SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs.
- threeseed 2y ago
  > SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs You can use NLPs to safely write SQL in more business language. And of course there are GUIs.
- kelnos 2y ago
  > SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs That's trivially false. I'm currently playing with sea-orm[0], and I can write things like: let db = Database::connect(...).await?; let yesterday: chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc> = ...; let foos: Vec<foos::Model> = Foos::find() .filter(foos::Column::Status.eq(FooStatus::Frobbed)) .filter(foos::Column::UpdatedAt.gt(yesterday)) .left_join(Bars) .also_select(Bars) .all(&db) .await?; How is that not higher-level than SQL? [0] https://crates.io/crates/sea-orm https://crates.io/crates/sea-orm
  - cwbriscoe 2y ago
    Why not just write SQL, it would be much more readable.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  > SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs. I mean, not really true. Datalog is relational, like SQL, but gives you a higher level rule-oriented mechanism for querying that can avoid a lot of the mechanics of explicitly joining things, for example.

ninetyninenine 2y ago

Well. You know what I mean. AI is also unreliable. Place chatGPT over a database and it's going to start lying about what is in it eventually. That being said my statement likely isn't strictly true even when you account for ML. I'm sure there are even higher level languages that are not probability based and thus deterministic with expected results. But in terms of a software developers average experience, SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs.

threeseed 2y ago
> SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs You can use NLPs to safely write SQL in more business language. And of course there are GUIs.
kelnos 2y ago
> SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs That's trivially false. I'm currently playing with sea-orm[0], and I can write things like: let db = Database::connect(...).await?; let yesterday: chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc> = ...; let foos: Vec<foos::Model> = Foos::find() .filter(foos::Column::Status.eq(FooStatus::Frobbed)) .filter(foos::Column::UpdatedAt.gt(yesterday)) .left_join(Bars) .also_select(Bars) .all(&db) .await?; How is that not higher-level than SQL? [0] https://crates.io/crates/sea-orm https://crates.io/crates/sea-orm
- cwbriscoe 2y ago
  Why not just write SQL, it would be much more readable.
cmrdporcupine 2y ago
> SQL is the highest level you can get without getting into the minefield that is LLMs. I mean, not really true. Datalog is relational, like SQL, but gives you a higher level rule-oriented mechanism for querying that can avoid a lot of the mechanics of explicitly joining things, for example.