Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote:
> According to scientific-ish database literature, a table is a
> relation and vice versa.
I've generally understood the terms more like what is described near
the top of this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relation_%28database%29
"In SQL, [...] a relation variable is called a table."
I'll admit that how these terms are treated depends very much on the
source, and we should define our terms to avoid confusion. But
defining a relation as set of records, and a table as a variable
which holds a maintainable "concrete" relation (or something more or
less to that effect) makes some sense to me.
-Kevin