Re: Table design for application options

Neo wrote:
> ... it really puts a damper on the holidays to mention ... any
> "multivalue" system
>
> Could you be more specific? What exactly is it about any multivalue
> system that puts a damper on the holidays? Also what do you consider
to
> be a value?

The holiday comment was a tongue-in-cheek way of expressing my complete disdain for any form of MV database model. One of my former employers was fooled into buying ERP software based on an MV database, and since then I have been trapped into spending over seven years of my career working intensely with several different MV incarnations. Only now am I finally starting to escape, thanks to my current employer's transition to Oracle. Not that I defend SQL products, but at least they are an attempt at the relational model. I have experience with development and administration on both types of systems, including many complex databasic/unibasic programs and routines.

On marketing -- I don't care if, for whatever reason, someone prefers to purchase MV products based on truthful presentation. As with many things in this world, I have seen MV software totally and purposefully misrepresented for a sale. A sale that can wreck the careers of programmers, database developers, and the like - especially in the current economy.

As far as a value goes, I define it as an individual constant. Note that I take things like domains, relations, and tuples to be values.

I've seen pick-type systems touted for their "bang for the buck". If a rapid and relatively inexpensive business development environment is the goal, why not consider MS SQL Server as a back-end (you can get the enterprise edition with unlimited seats for $18k) and MS Access as a front-end? Many businesses buy an OEM copy of Office pro with each PC, so many times there's no additional cost at the client end. Since the server is doing all the DBMS work, you're not subject to Access' load limitations, yet you get the benefit of a good screen form development tool and a fairly robust report designer (BTW I am not a Microsoft pusher by any means). It's not a perfect system, but very effective...and "semi-relational". Received on Wed Dec 22 2004 - 21:18:02 CET