Re: Pizza Example

"Anthony W. Youngman" <wol_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:3liqSxG8WvfAFw3H_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk...
> It's all very well saying data about my fingers (of which I have ten) is
> different from data about me (of which there is only one), but by
> storing the data in different tables, the database has lost the
> information that the fingers and the rest of me are all one thing.

This is similar to the argument that because computer code isn't shaped like it's subject on the printed page, it can't possibly be a good model of it. Maybe we should indent so our code forms the image of whatever it is the code deals with?

"One thing" is the pivotal problem here - both words, actually. The finger/me example is fairly trivial, and I could suggest any portion of order systems, invoice systems, product databases, etc. where the "one thing" isn't universally agreed-upon, and various departments would have different ideas about the right "one thing" to model. That's why logical predicates are a better basis for modeling data, and yes, you can still construct "one thing" from them without losing information, and in fact can construct various different "one things" depending on what "one thing" you're trying to accomplish. Received on Mon Apr 19 2004 - 15:58:16 CEST