Whoever "this author" is you do not make much sense:
 ENCYCLOPEDIC: Wikipedia is supposed to be (and is!) the encyclopedia. It is not a superficial encyclopedia to elementary school pupils. You ideas about "encyclopedic" are really funny. See for example other major technical/scientific articles like Calculus and General relativity. Do you suggest to make them shorter and remove there technical material that you may not understand? By your criteria for "encyclopedic" both Wikipedia and others like Encyclopedia Britannica with probably shrink by at least 50%.
TEXTBOOK - This article is roughly 100K char long. Have you seen any database textbook? I know a few and they are larger in orders of magnitude! Typically hundreds of pages long. So, what are you talking about?  209.144.63.76