"Arved Sandstrom" <asandstrom@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:43_7k.979$yg7.121@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "Gene Wirchenko" <genew@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:9oi064dbl8htvt6prrc89cadtgkjgiu399@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > "Arved Sandstrom" <asandstrom@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >>"David Cressey" <cressey73@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >>news:_dO7k.7468$qb7.996@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>>
> >>> "Arved Sandstrom" <asandstrom@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> >>>> The other programmer's reasoning is presumably exactly what he said
in
> >>>> his
> >>>> email (the snippet that you included), the concern that there will
be
> >>>> an
> >>>> explosion in the number of tables. That he's not aware of the
pitfalls
> >>>> of
> >>>> his suggested approach is no great surprise...back in the day I
surely
> >>>> designed tables like this also, I'm sure all of us have.
> >>>>
> >>> Some of us learned database design before we began designing
databases.
> >>
> >>Most of us learn by doing, and it's during that process that you make
> >>mistakes. You're not seriously suggesting you've never made any?
> >
> > There is making mistakes while learning to apply a workable
> > method, and there is making mistakes because one did not learn first.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Gene Wirchenko
>
> I agree. But it's also possible to be conscientious about educating
> oneself - doing lots of Googling, reading articles and books, working
> quality tutorials, posing questions on newsgroups - and nevertheless
miss
> things. Introductory material will not address intermediate and advanced
> issues in detail, for example. Learning OTJ from peers and superiors is
also
> hit and miss. And not infrequently you simply will not think to research
> something because you do not know that you do not know.
>
> Take the subject of this thread, for example. *Once* you are somewhat
aware
> that there is such a database design issue, it doesn't take much
Googling
to
> turn up some good articles about it. But absent that initial awareness
it's
> not that obvious.
>
> AHS
>
The replies you gave to Gene show me how you and I can come to such
different views on the same subject. I learned database design in about
the
1984 to 1986 time frame, after programming for fifteen years. There was
no
Google. There were no forums, (unless you count VAXnotes conferences on
the Digital e-net). There were, however, a few good books on the
subject,
some good lecture series, a few very good mentors, people who taught
database material for a living, and most im****tantly, some examples of
well
designed databases.
So in my context it was very easy to become aware that there was something
fundamental that I did not know, and that I needed to learn. I had
designed
indexed files before to sup****t my apps, so I wasn't starting from ground
zero. And I had unconsciously applied some of the normalization rules in
my
design of indexed files. That made it easier for me to learn the formal
normalization rules and the consequences of departing from them.
Your context sounds quite different. I don't want to put words in your
mouth. I will say that there are a lot of people out there today who
switch
over from storing data in files to storing the same data in a database
with
the idea that the switch is a relatively trivial matter with a few
technical
details but no fundamentals to rethink. And the benefits they derive from
using a database and a DBMS turn out to be relatively trivial, while the
costs turn out to be huge.
Some of those people learn the hard way. Some never learn. They move
back
to using files because, according to them, databases aren't worth the
cost
and aggravation.
|
