Re: FN-FORUM: What's the best development platform for creating Web 2.0 business applications?

date posted 21st November 2007 23:24


> On Wednesday 21 November 2007 19:22:15 Graham Stark wrote:
>
> > The idea is, sort out what really makes a record unique (a username,
> > perhaps, or a username and an order number) and use that. Let the
> > database do the work for you.
>
> Sure. My point (again) is that adding a unique auto-increment ID and
> a timestamp can be an enormously useful source of information when
> debugging. You may not ever look at these again except through an
> admin tool.
>


> > Normalisation procedures can look scary, but they're really not.
>
> That's my point. As far as I can see it's all dressed-up in fancy
> computer science bollockese from the University of the Bleedin'
> Obvious.
>

Oh, dear: I wish I hadn't got in to this...

Let me just say this:

There's a well established approach to modelling relationships in
databases. After my last attempt I'm not going try to describe it:
Google 'Relational Model' or 'Normali[s|z]ation'. Perhaps it is
"computer science bollockese from the University of the Bleedin'
Obvious.". But it made Larry Ellison rich, it was what guided the
designers of SQL itself, it works for me and my co-workers, and it's
actually pretty easy to learn (otherwise it wouldn't work for me).

I was trying to help by pointing this out, however incoherently. I see
lots of posts here from people struggling with complex SQL statements -
I've tried to answer some myself - and it seems to me that the roots of
many or most of them are in table design;

Put unique auto-increment IDs, timestamps, or anything else you want in
your tables, if it helps you - it's hardly up to me. But relying on
these as the main tools to describe the relationships in a database
causes lots of people lots of problems - especially unique incrementing
IDs as primary keys.

Anyway, it's late. As a Scotsman, for almost the first time in my life,
I'm sorry England lost. I must be getting old. Commiserations to you
all.

Graham