> If it weren't so domain-specific, it would be the holy grail of languages.
That's relatively true of many languages. The reason SQL has been able to be optimized so heavily (and the reason why it's been adopted so broadly) is because it is so domain specific.
More specifically, it is optimized for expression set algebraic operations, and certain kinds of kernels to apply to resultant sets. It is most definitely NOT suited for most array or otherwise metrically-oriented data series, which is why you never see it used in HPC to express timeseries transformations or, say, 3D PDE diffusion simulations. For those applications, people have come up with different kinds of specialized languages which are rooted in an more appropriate data abstraction than merely set operations.
That's relatively true of many languages. The reason SQL has been able to be optimized so heavily (and the reason why it's been adopted so broadly) is because it is so domain specific.
More specifically, it is optimized for expression set algebraic operations, and certain kinds of kernels to apply to resultant sets. It is most definitely NOT suited for most array or otherwise metrically-oriented data series, which is why you never see it used in HPC to express timeseries transformations or, say, 3D PDE diffusion simulations. For those applications, people have come up with different kinds of specialized languages which are rooted in an more appropriate data abstraction than merely set operations.