SQL is great and I am fully on board with the idea. Everywhere I go, I promote the greatness of SQL, of the relational model, and of Postgres. I didn’t write in so much to challenge SQL or pitch navigational databases, as to ask about examples of “pseudo-imperative” languages.
Brief comments.
1. LINQ has some of what you describe, and certainly provides some of the benefits you mention.
2. The Third Manifesto http://thethirdmanifesto.com specifies a pure relational language (a ‘better SQL’) in largely imperative terms, and there is an implementation https://reldb.org that is mainly imperative.
3. My own project http://www.andl.org/ is functional rather than imperative but still fulfils the same purpose. On SQLite and Postgres, it generates SQL.
No, SQL is not great. It’s actually full of holes at every level, from basic language design to serious breaches of the relational model to monstrous incompatibilities between implementations. However, the concept of SQL is great (which is why it’s been so successful), and existing implementations have done extraordinarily well, all things considered. As they say, the good enough is the enemy of the great. SQL is here to stay.
Regards
David M Bennett FACS
Andl - A New Database Language - andl.org