Re: Theory v Practice

Two examples from my own experience:

A few years ago when I was starting out, I got involved on a database project where all the constraints were coded rather than declared at database level (it wasn't Oracle, but the principle remains the same). It was a relatively small project and the guy who had put most of the system together had done it pretty well. Looking back, I can't really fault his data modelling, or in general, his ability to implement the FK constraints in the code. However, the system took so long to develop that it was obsolete before it was finished, and was subsequently shelved. It was like we were re-inventing the wheel every day. Needless to say, if this project had involved a larger team, the problems would have been much worse.

More recently, I'm having to support another system (Oracle this time) which is guilty of the same crime, only this time not so well designed, and not so well implemented. It is a total nightmare - it's so bad that I can't even begin to fix some of the issues. I've got "foreign keys" that don't have a parent row, tables related by one of a number of keys (take your pick - the choice of column is arbitrary), duplicate keys... the list goes on and on. The only sensible option would be to start from scratch.

So, in conclusion, Craig, I can only add weight to the general consensus that your VB developers are badly misguided. Good luck in sorting this out.

Maria

At 09:45 23/10/02 -0800, you wrote:
>The developers working on our new VB app are also responsible for
>setting up the Oracle DB behind it. The app is for an order
>entry/despatch/warehouse system with >5 million customers and >1000
>orders per day. We have nearly 400 tables. They are not planning on
>using primary keys/secondary keys, as they say they will handle all the
>constraints via VB.
>I only have a theoretical knowledge of database design, which says this
>is very wrong. Is the Oracle system being used as anything more than an
>expensive file system? In real world scenarios, is this a common
>practice?
>
>Regards
>
>Craig Healey
>
>
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Author: Maria Quinn
  INET: maria_at_foremost.co.uk

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