akl (3/31/2010)
The use or ORM for object/relation mapping should be called Object Data Mapping since the objects know nothing of relations to any other object. Data elements in objects are supposed to be encapsulated, free of dependencies.
That is a questionable statement, since somewhere in any model, relations have to be stored. Does an order know which order details belong to it? Or does an order detail know to what order it belongs to?
One of the two has to be right in order to get access to data! Thus I would say the opposite as you and state there is always relationship knowledge stored in at least some of the objects. In what form is another matter as there are many possibilities.