Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0201708507, Paperback)

"What I think Date has done is nothing less than to lay out the foundational concepts for the next generation of business logic servers based on predicate logic. Such a breakthrough should revolutionize application development in our industry -- and take business rules to their fullest expression." --Ronald G. Ross, Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC Executive Editor, DataToKnowledge Newsletter The way we build computer applications is about to change dramatically, thanks to a new development technology known as business rules. The key idea behind the technology is that we can build applications declaratively instead of procedurally -- that is, we can simply state WHAT needs to be done instead of HOW to do what needs to be done. The advantages are obvious: ease and rapidity of initial development and subsequent maintenance; hardware and software platform independence; overall productivity; business adaptivity; and more. What Not How: The Business Rules Approach to Application Development is a concise and accessible introduction to this new technology. It is written for both managers and technical professionals. It consists of two parts: Part I presents a broad overview of what business rules are all about; Part II then revisits the ideas in Part I and shows how they fit squarely into the solid tradition of relational technology. Topics covered include:

Presentation rules

Database and application rules

Building on the data model

Potential advantages and disadvantages

A new look at relational fundamentals

Business rules and the relational model Overall, the book provides a good grounding in an important new technology, one poised to transform the way we do business in the I.T. world.