true grits / Re: Where can I find real-life-examples about ORACLE installations?

On 19 Apr 2001, at 17:50, Jared Still wrote:

Date sent:              Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:50:27 -0800
To:                     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>

...

> In my experience, DBA's are scum and developers lobby the managers
> with tales of how terrible life will be if they're forced to write code for
> a normalized database.

OH MY GOD! I was sure that all you highly paid real world DBAs always got everything you want. Another bubble burst.

...
>
> I guess I'm saying that I can't recall starting with a completely normalized
> database ( just 3rd normal form here ) and then denormalize if we found
> it necessary for some reason.
>
> We've usually have had some denormalization in as soon as we started
> doing physical modeling. Sigh.

Well, why would you *not* want to denormalize during design? It seems to me that (theoretically) ***if*** you are doing "structured" denormalization correctly, that is exactly when you would want to do it, no?

> If you're familiar with the Help Desk software 'Remedy', you will know that
> it has one of the worst schemas ever designed by man or beast. If you
> haven't seen it, you would have a hard time imagining it. Yes, worse than
> Finanacials, Lawson, SAP, etc.

My general impression is that big, commercial packages tend to have a really bad reputation for being implemented on bad models. If I stay here, I'll probably learn more about Peoplesoft over the next couple of years.

Obviously it is human nature for multi-platform commercial package vendors to not "do the right thing" from a platform oriented purist dba perspective.

But, I can't see that all that has anything to do with legitimate structured denormalization practices.

What I'm mainly thinking of was an old article in Oracle magazine on denormalization by Ulka Rogers.

>
> ( 'where is he going with this?' you ask )
>
> One of my fantasies is to build a help desk system that runs on a normalized
> schema, open source it, and put Remedy out of business. The schema
> is that bad.

Blessings and peace be upon the righteous and those that abide by the will of the Supreme Being.

> > pss, aren't you *ever* going to tell us what happened at your last
> > job?
>
> Sorry, thought I had.

sorry, I must have missed it. I try to always read your posts, but sometime, I just have to hit the filter key for this list, and I never have time to go back and read everything that is dumped out to an archive folder.

>
> My previous employer laid off several folks. I wasn't among them however.
> Damagement decided to take this opportunity to redeploy several positions
> to HQ in Houston TX.

hummm, "energy crisis" mess? :)

>
> If you've spent any time in the Pacific NorthWest, you may understand why
> I chose to stay here. Likewise if you've been to Houston :)

Yes, I have relatives that were in Eugene from the late 1970s until a couple of years ago. Excellent quality of life if compared to the "rat race" mentality prevailing in most urban centers. But, it is too darn drizzly up there and claustraphobic with all those big deep dark rain forests for me personally, I'd rather be in the Sonoran desert (eg, Tuscon) if I had my 'druthers.

> ( hope I didn't offend any Texicans :)

technically I'm a 5th generation (unoffended) texan, but my parents got me out of there prior to my 2nd birthday. I do like grits, bisquits and gravy, blackeye peas, okra and all that good stuff. :)

> I'm taking this opportunity to attempt a slight career change and get into
> the contracting side of things.

wow!

thanks/regards,
ep

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