> A typical programming language can express all that SQL can. In a way, an ORM is a cross-compiler from your programming language to SQL.
SQL has always been a sort a magical, black-box in that you have very limited control over the query planner, and have to hint at it to do the right thing. (I guess `EXPLAIN` allows you to peak in the box a little)
I would be interested to compare how PSQL is built in comparison. I would love a more layered/pluggable database that everyone can build off of. I think FoundationDB had this approach.
LINQ is pretty much a clone of SQL. Its nice, I agree, but do you think its materially different?
SQL could benefit from being language-integrated, yes. Very few languages can model relational algebra types though, if thats a thing you care about (it certainly is for me).
Postgres before it was called 'PostgreSQL', used something called QUEL, which is quite a bit cleaner. There is also Microsoft's LINQ.
A typical programming language can express all that SQL can. In a way, an ORM is a cross-compiler from your programming language to SQL.