Re: Generalised approach to storing address details

In message <1165577894.203896.14860_at_j44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, Frank Millman <frank_at_chagford.com> writes
>
>Cimode wrote:
>> Huhh...The comment posted was purely ironical. EAV is pure crap....
>>
>
>Now you have confused me. I did not get any sense of irony from your
>original post.
>
>Are you saying that my proposed idea is pure crap? Don't pull your
>punches, I really want to know.
>
>If so, do you have any other suggestions, especially bearing in mind
>Bernard's remark about international requirements?

I've covered the other issue in another post. I have built an EAV database and it works very well, but as I am the database designer and the only user that's not entirely surprising. EAV databases are impure crap. They are viable in very limited circumstances. If *all of the users without exception* understand metadata concepts and have been properly trained EAV systems can be made to work. That situation is so rare that "pure crap" is a reasonable approximation to reality.

-- 
Bernard Peek
back in search of cognoscenti