Data-Models

As all of us know there have been three major data models, Relational, Heirarchic and Network. Over a period of time relational has got the lion's share as the choice of modelling a databse. Though I appreciate all the plus points this model brings I must confess a certain nostalgic longing for network databases and the network model. The reason for this nostalgia was that I felt immediately at ease with the network model (once one understood currency), specially the ease with which I could map the real-life context to the database. As I was reading Marin Fowler's bliki (blog + wiki) I realised where this prejudice of mine comes from. He notes in his post that though relational is the model of choice for databases most programmers and designers use network and heirarchic models while representing data within their code. He explores this thought further. I would recommend all of you to read his post : MF Bliki: DataModels