Re: Clean Object Class Design -- What is it?

> And
> for bi-directional associations, it enforces referential integrity.
which OODBMS does this and what is the kind of 'enforcement'? Is it only a setting of the bi-link to NULL or more? (rdbms forbid those actions or do a delete on cascade if you want them to)  

> I find that a normalized model does not usually consist of stand-alone
> entities. For example (again), a contact database should have multiple
> phone numbers for a contact. Perhaps each number would include a
> "type" tag (home, cell, etc.). In order to associate this phone
> information with the contact info, either a synthetic ID must be
> generated or the primary key values must be replicated. I'd rather
> just store the array of phone numbers with the contact where they
> belong.

well, but with a RDBM you are able to put contraints etc. into your tables to
enforce a consistent state of the data. AND this is visible without reading the C++ (or whatever)
sources ... and protects the data against programming errors. (the sql-rules for enforcing are much more simple than c++, java, smalltalk etc. and therefore have less errors)

> I find an object database a marvelous tool for managing complexity. To
> each his own.

I miss the ability to view the meta-model in a convenient way. AND i like to be able to query/change the meta-model even from within the application (if needed) .. what seems to be impossible to do with all OODBMS I know of. Received on Thu Aug 30 2001 - 13:13:07 CEST