The Shapes of Data

tl;dr Dating all the way back to the earliest of databases, data has had a "shape" to it, a natural schematic form that defines the various "atoms" and "molecules" that the database understands naturally. Relational data, such as that described by SQL and relational databases, is only one such shape; the various "NoSQL" databases often offer a different shape, but it's not always the same. What's…