> Some of the explanations are questionable: I think they were overly simplified, and while I applaud the goal, some things just aren't that simple.
I am an expert on the subject matter, and I don't think that the overall approach is questionable. The approach that the author took seems fine to me.
The definition of certain basic concepts like 'consistency' is even confusing to experts at times. This is made all the more confusing by introducing concepts from the distributed systems world, where consistency is often understood to mean something else.
Here's an example of that that I'm familiar with, where an expert admits to confusion about the basic definition of consistency in the sense that it appears in ACID:
This is a person that is a longtime peer of the people that invented the concepts!
Not trying to rigorously define these things makes a great deal of sense in the context of a high level overview. Getting the general idea across is far more important.
I am an expert on the subject matter, and I don't think that the overall approach is questionable. The approach that the author took seems fine to me.
The definition of certain basic concepts like 'consistency' is even confusing to experts at times. This is made all the more confusing by introducing concepts from the distributed systems world, where consistency is often understood to mean something else.
Here's an example of that that I'm familiar with, where an expert admits to confusion about the basic definition of consistency in the sense that it appears in ACID:
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3469647
This is a person that is a longtime peer of the people that invented the concepts!
Not trying to rigorously define these things makes a great deal of sense in the context of a high level overview. Getting the general idea across is far more important.