Re: The BOOLEAN data type

bbadour_at_golden.net says...

> > What about a field HasYChromosome - and please don't tell me about
> > various chromosomal disorders that can lead to attributes of maleness
> > despite having no Y chromosome or vice versa - this has little relevance
> > in the real world.
 

> HasYChromosome is properly boolean. One must presume that the business rules
> do not need to record multiple Y chromosomes,

And there would be precious few apps that would need this!

> and that the application cares
> more about what the chromosomes say than what the sexual organs say--or what
> the person says, for that matter. Someone transgendered from female to male
> might not have a Y chromosome, but might use the mens room.

But would call themselves "male" and look "reasonably" male and have something resembling a willy and use the men's room and be able to sleep in the male dorm - even if they were lacking in the willy dept., there's nothing obliging people to strip off in dorms.  

> > This is essentially meaningless in the real world - "You've just had a
> > baby - boy or girl?" - not "Is it male, female, partially transgendered,
> > gender reassigned male to female, gender reassigned female to male,
> > unknown etc."
 

> You presume much. I would argue that those struggling with the legal and
> social ramifications of transgender surgery--in the real world--would
> disagree with your broad generality.

I am writing an application for the real world, not the far out scenarios you are describing.  

> > Knowing the sex of the person in the case of an app I'm working on at
> > the moment is important, since it is potentially necessary for possible
> > dormitory sleeping arrangements - i.e. the boys sleep in dorms with
> > other boys and vice versa.
 

> Where do you put the intersexed children? At 1:1000 to 1:500, your
> application will probably have to deal with the situation eventually:
> http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aissg/intersexq&a.htm

Intersexes generally resemble one or the other and are treated as such.  

> Where do you put the sexually aggressive abuse survivors?
> http://www.csun.edu/~psy453/expose_y.htm

If one wanders in off the street to join a Youth Hostel Organisation, I doubt if anyone's going to ask me about any history of sexual abuse.  

> What does the implication function mean for gender?

Eh?  

> > What about a table which stores bills? Paid or unpaid - that's a fairly
> > simple and important example of a boolean.
 

> I agree, and I would observe that the boolean functions actually have some
> meaning for "paid" as in the following boolean expression:
> (invoiced and not paid)

Indeed, which is why I asked in the first place.

Paul...

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