Re: Just one more anecdote

David Cressey wrote:

>
> "Gene Wirchenko" <genew_at_ucantrade.com.NOTHERE> wrote in message
> news:a9r1f1h7h47sk13foh61n6f4dbklhnmvfj_at_4ax.com...
>
>

>>      I like ERDs, too.  It does not take much to read them.  I like
>> having notations that are fairly easy for non-IT people to follow.

I'm going to have to post a restatement of it:

"People find it easy to work with tabular data".

The currently circulating phrasing violated Einstein's rule to keep it as simple as possible, _but_ _no_ _simpler_. The currently circulating version is too simple.

The newer version stated above better puts what I have observed, which is that people of all backgrounds will readily take to organizing data into tables and talking about tables without being intimidated or feeling they need some special technical knowledge. This does NOT mean they understand the RM or that they will organize their tables well, only that they will be comfortable doing whatever they are doing.

The original and unchanged rigorous statement of the law is: "Tabular data is ideally abstracted". Meaning you don't need to remove abstraction to work with it, nor do you need to add abstraction to work with it. The implications for design are that you can have table designs as the output of analysis. The implication for UI is that the UI should follow the table structures, giving links and so forth for the user to navigate through the tables.

-- 
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
(Ken)nneth_at_(Sec)ure(Dat)a(.com)