Re: Is this bad design ?

"Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote in message news:ueN3c.934$YG.7776_at_attbi_s01...
> "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message
news:c2nj16$cm3$1_at_news.netins.net...
> > >

<snip>
> There are areas where we want the computer to improve on the brain, such
as
> > in accurate aggregations, but there are other areas where an RDBMS pales
in
> > comparison to what the brain is capable of doing. If you decide you
need to
> > search not just on last name but on substrings in the department name,
as in
> > Ben's example, the brain adapts to this change quickly while an RDBMS
does
> > not.
>
> In what way does simply changing the name of the column in the where
clause
> of an sql query not quickly adapting?

The answer is in the fact that the users and computer professionals, it sounds like opted to add a department value to the end of the last name for search purposes.
>
>
> > Just as children learn how to speak before they formally learn the rules
of
> > language, people learn how to organize data (propositions and related
> > predicates, for example) before they formally learn how to organize it.
If
> > the formalization of the data organization is decidedly different from
the
> > organization that we learn naturally, it might be worth questioning
both,
> > right? smiles. --dawn
>
> That's very Rousseau of you, but I consider it anti-intellectual. People
> are not naturally logical, nor kind, nor polite, nor literate, nor
numerate.
> They have to be taught these things, and they have to study to master
> them.
>
> For centuries, people rejected the concept of zero, and it took more
> centuries to accept the concept of negative numbers. Negative number
> are definitely *not* "natural" but they are still extraordinarily useful.

I can buy into the theme of Total depravity (T in TULIP of the Canons of Dordt). However, learning more about how our brains naturally organize data could provide some useful insights, don't you think?

Now go take some zinc, Marshall, and get rid of that cold! smiles. --dawn Received on Thu Mar 11 2004 - 00:32:12 CET