I’ve given more thought to the new data language I’m working on, and finally decided on a name as well.
The new baby shall be called RyuQ — a reference to where I live respelled to accommodate the mandatory “Q” in any shiny new query language. I’ve settled on a modified form of S-expressions, calling them SP-expressions to distinguish between real S-expressions and my mutated version. The (still infantile) language description is peppered with examples, so you can see pretty quickly if SP-expressions feel comfortable or more alien relative to SQL.
I have to say, the further I go on this the more I wonder what was going through the minds on the committee that created SQL. So many things are just so obvious when sticking to an algebraic notation rather than trying to form some new thing that is neither relational algebra nor relational calculus.
Until I have a complete implementation worked into a fork of Postgres I won’t be able to do anything but toy with this language — but the more thought I give it the less I am satisfied with the work I am currently compelled to do in SQL.