Top all-time · #9900
Carlin Eng
Personal blog · carlineng.comdataprogramming
Carlin Eng's personal blog at carlineng.com covers data and programming. Since 2022, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 22 times, most often “A Critique of SQL, 40 Years Later”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for posts on SQL criticism, the semantic layer, and tools like Malloy and Cube.js. Commenters call its SQL critique more robust than their own and say the semantic-layer post sets up the problem well.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Homepage of Carlin Eng
Most-linked posts?
- A Critique of SQL, 40 Years Later3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-08-23
- A sequel to SQL? An intro to Malloy2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-09-06
- What Happened to the Semantic Layer?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-26
- The Data Modeling Divide2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-03
What Hacker News says?
I used SQL in various implementations for about 15 years. I didn't find much fault in it until I started using KQL (the language which seems to have inspired Pql). The difference in enjoyability is stark: I truly hate SQL now. More robust criticism is provided here ( https://carlineng.com/?postid=sql-critique#blog ). The quote I usually drag out is from Chris Date, who helped pioneer relational DBs: "At the same tim…
Comment linking /?postid=sql-critique
on “Pql, a pipelined query language that compiles to SQL”Submitted A Critique of SQL, 40 Years Later as a story · 187 points
HN discussionI view SQL right now similar to the way I viewed C++ in early 2000s: I hate it, but there's little point in complaining because it's so ubiquitous. More robust criticism is provided here ( https://carlineng.com/?postid=sql-critique#blog ), which pulls on an interview here ( https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/opinion/opinion-pieces/... ) The quote I usually drag out is from Chris Date, who helped pioneer relational…
Comment linking /?postid=sql-critique
on “Half a century of SQL”Submitted A sequel to SQL? An intro to Malloy as a story · 117 points
HN discussionI've written about this topic a fair amount; first examining some of the criticisms of SQL that have been present since the language's inception [1], then looking at a new project called Malloy that I'm quite excited about, and think has a lot of potential to address some of the problems of SQL as it relates to data analysis [2]. [1]: https://carlineng.com/?postid=sql-critique#blog [2]: https://carlineng.com/?postid…
Comment linking /?postid=malloy-intro
on “Ask HN: Does anyone else think SQL needs help?”Submitted What Happened to the Semantic Layer? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI agree 100% that this needs to be more of a thing. For data engineers building data pipelines, queries are like functions, and table schemas are like types. There needs to be a way to write a query that runs on an abstract interface, rather than an actual table. To do this, most folks rely on string templating in Python or Jinja, which makes the development process really cumbersome. As a result, most teams end up…
Comment linking /?postid=holy-grail-data-engineering
on “Show HN: Trilogy – A Reusable, Composable SQL Experiment”Submitted Why SQL syntax sucks, and why it matters as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've written quite a bit about a new query language called Malloy: https://carlineng.com/?postid=malloy-intro#blog It's a semantic layer with an integrated query language that makes a ton of improvements on SQL. Full disclosure, I actually joined the team a couple of weeks ago :)
Comment linking /?postid=malloy-intro
on “SQL: 2023 is finished: Here is what's new”Submitted Escaping SQL's Legacy: Malloy and the Era of AI-Powered Analytics as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI believe the author missed another approach of the semantic layer. That is the one used by Power BI Semantic model or, and perhaps, the most interesting one Malloy. In these tools, the semantic layer is a thin layer that only define the following: - metric definition (mostly as aggregation function) - dimensions of analysis (product category, country, etc.) This blog makes a much better argument than I would at pre…
Comment linking /?postid=malloy-intro
on “What Is a Semantic Layer?”Submitted Reusability in Data Engineering: Holy Grail or Fool's Errand? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI saw a project in similar space- Malloy- go by recently, in a post, What Happened to the Semantic Layer, which I thought nicely setup the space & problem. https://carlineng.com/?postid=semantic-layer#blog https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35715410 They indeed mentioned Cube.js. Bunch of Malloy links over time: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&query=Malloy&sort=byDa... And cube.js, https://hn.algolia.com/?da…
Comment linking /?postid=semantic-layer
on “Cube.js: Headless Semantic Layer”Submitted The Data Modeling Divide as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Exploring the TPC-DS Benchmark Queries with Malloy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Happened to the Semantic Layer? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Data Modeling Divide as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted SQL, Malloy, and the Art of the Renaissance as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why SQL syntax sucks, and why it matters as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted SQL and the Pernicious Effects of Awkward Syntax as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Critique of SQL, 40 Years Later as a story · 1 points
HN discussion