Re: The fable of DEMETRIUS, CONSTRAINTICUS, and AUTOMATICUS

OK, here I am jumping into Ken's reply to Marshall.

"Kenneth Downs" <firstinit.lastname_at_lastnameplusfam.net> wrote in message news:0v46lc.r9h.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...

> The question would then become, how do you control the definition of the
> set? Can the user modify it? Can we declare a set as having a range of
> values from a table controlled by a user?

>
> >
> >
> >> Advantage 1: With a constraint, policy changes require a programmer.

It depends. If the constraint was declared via DDL, and enforced by the DBMS, then it's going to require someone with DDL priviliges on the DB. In the environments I used to work in, that meant the DBA, and NOT the appplication programmers. No wonder everybody treated DBA's like they were all Constrainticus.

I've been a DBA. And I was Constrainticus at the time. I slept well at night.

> Hmmmm. Let's define:
>
> $(DDL) = Expense required to use DDL
> $(USR) = Expense required to have user make change.

The budget is missing an item above.

   $(FU) = Expense required to make sense out of the mess made when the user made the change, unaware of the global consequences, and restore the status quo ante.

(FU is an acronym for "Fatality Undo") Received on Wed Oct 20 2004 - 14:56:39 CDT