Re: candidate keys in abstract parent relations

> Nobody here proposed looking at Industry Standards. Why do we like to
> re-invent the wheel? I know that Tony hates to research, follow
> Standards and all that other stuff that get in the way of a "agile/
> extreme/ cowboy coder" image -- and job security :). But why did Roy

How dare you, and continue to call me a cowboy and you'll find yourself in litigation; my professional experience, references and qualification speaks for itself and quite frankly I will not tollerate an arrogant, condesending and out of touch dated 'un-professional' like you even suggesting that.

I do research at the point I need it so my findings are completely up-to-date, I do not have a folder full of canned answers that are years old and completely out of date. If a client has a specific problem that I've not solved before I spend time before the consulting visit researching the current thinking, whats coming in the future - like any good consultant does.

People need only check your website links page (http://www.celko.com/resources.htm) to know that, half of them no longer work.

> updating, etc. when you can use IDENTITY mindlessly and effortlessly
> to mimick a pointer-based DBMS or "roll your own" encodings !

How is using an IDENTITY property (a sequence in ANSI 2003) any different from rolling your own sequence generator; you can still create check digits around the sequence if you so wish.

-- 
Tony Rogerson
SQL Server MVP
http://sqlserverfaq.com - free video tutorials


"-CELKO-" <jcelko212_at_earthlink.net> wrote in message 
news:1137735403.921862.48820_at_z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...


> Observation:


>

> Nobody here proposed looking at Industry Standards.  Why do we like to

> re-invent the wheel?   I know that Tony hates to research, follow

> Standards and all that other stuff that get in the way of a "agile/

> extreme/ cowboy coder" image -- and job security :).  But why did Roy

> miss the entire music industry?  This is the guy who knows about

> additive congruential methods of generating values in pseudo-random

> order!

>

> I offer that we are still thinking like "procedural coders"  and NOT

> like "database people" instead.  We re-invent the wheel because it is

> fun.  It is also faster than research -- Hey, why look for a relational

> key with all its validation and verification rules, documentation,

> updating, etc.  when you can use IDENTITY mindlessly and effortlessly

> to mimick a pointer-based  DBMS or "roll your own" encodings !

>

> I did a 30 minute consulting job two Christmasses for a mail order BBQ

> company.  The problem involved packing boxes.  Everyone else who posted

> to the question was trying to write a "3D Tetris" program.  I realized

> that they had over 4 years of shipping data with Fed Ex.  Do a

> relational division on the shipments.  Find the minimal box size/dry

> ice combo used for each shipment.  Put that experience in a look-up

> table with about 8000 rows.  Hnadle the 0.2% stuff not in the table as

> an exception.  Go home in 30 minutes or less.  Oh, the query runs

> 10,000 times faster than the "Tetris" proposals.

>

> Comments?

>