Re: How to model searchable properties of an entity

"--CELKO--" <jcelko212_at_earthlink.net> wrote in message news:18c7b3c2.0408180730.484a40bc_at_posting.google.com...

> That is a bad example; libraries have been pretty well defined and
> encoded for at least the last century. If I need a new
> classification, I have the Dewey Decimal framework to look it up if it
> already exists, or to get some open slots if it really is brand new.

I disagree. A library is a classic example of building a repository of knowledge where the structure of the content of the knowledge is only dimly known at build time. The sum total of human knowledge is nearly four times what it was when Dewey Decimal was first thought up, and yet it's still working. Not bad.

Of course there are a few quirks: A tiny portion of the number space was dedicated to all of "information science", while huge areas of numbers are reserved for new advances in phlogiston theory. But you can't win them all.

But it is useful to think about the difference in our expectations of "the DBA" and of "the librarian". We do not expect the same level of control or accountability from a librarian that we do from a DBA.

Or at least you and I both continue to have high expectations of a DBA. While I disagree with you from time to time, I think we rarely disagree at the fundamental level. Received on Wed Aug 18 2004 - 17:57:04 CEST