Re: IDJIT! Your Data Model Can't Posssibly Work!

>> What schema would you use for something like andriods who may need to represent things that are unimaginable? what schema allows storage of any future/unknown things, yet the data representing those things will be normalized, thus allowing efficient data mgmt?

> None. The basic idea of a schema is to define what information can be stored in the db and in what for, and what information to disallow because it confllicts with the constraints. If the unlikely, the improbably and even the impossible should be allowed to be stored, RM, ORM, ER, UML, [etc] can go out the window.

:) Will all the humans alive fit through that window?

In RM, the correct answer is, there is such a schema but it is highly impractical. But the Db for DingDongs has a schema so general that it can store anything or has no schema (like car mechanic asking jet mechanic where are'll them pistons) or the data is the schema. In anycase, user/app never need design a schema before representing things; yet representation of those things is fully "normalized" (without redundancy) thus allowing efficient data mgmt. Received on Thu Apr 20 2006 - 00:00:42 CEST