Re: Refactoring
Date: 11 Jul 2003 16:50:01 -0700
Message-ID: <c0d87ec0.0307111550.5492f685_at_posting.google.com>
>> can anybody tell me what's the meaning of "refactoring" applied to
the
field of databases? <<
Look up the agiledatabases group on Yahoo! They have a small forum connected to Scott Ambler. Basically, it sounds like a bunch of blind men get together and they guess at what the data model might look like, each application team changing the database on the fly on their whims. You quickly lose your data model and degenerate back to a file system and kludges to hold it together.
Yes, I do think it is an old idea in new clothing - ad hoc, on the fly, programming with kludges. Now a bit poetry
The Blind Men and the Elephant
by
John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a snake!
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain, quoth he;
'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: Even the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!?
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a rope!
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
Another moral:
From an old S. Gross cartoon in the NATIONAL LAMPOON, the original six blind men are holding onto the elephant and a seventh is off to the side, standing in an elephant turd, announcing "An elephant is like SH*T!". Received on Sat Jul 12 2003 - 01:50:01 CEST