Re: pro- foreign key propaganda?

sinister wrote:
...
> What do I do if he gets back to me and says---as I'm sure everyone in his
> position does---"oh, but my PHP code makes sure everything is done right"?
> Not that I don't know what to say, but it would be good to have a pointer to
> an essay or webpage that succinctly explains why you're asking for trouble
> if you don't encode such relationships in the DB itself.
> ...

It is usually pointless to argue technical points with ignorants, even if they are well-meaning that will encourage even more wasteful work on top of the existing mistakes. The only argument I've ever seen succeed was to tell management that certain features of the product it had invested in were being ignored and that they were paying extra to code those features in-house. That is still a long-shot as most managements are also too lazy or ignorant to pay attention to non-political issues.

By rights, the first argument ought to be that the slightest error in the in-house code risks integrity for the whole installation but usually who wins either of these two arguments is a matter of who has more of mgmt's ear, so in practice it still comes down to politics.

Of course, if you're lucky enough to win either argument over the heads of the ignorants, some of those will make themselves your enemies in future, wherever you may go. Having experienced all of the above over many years, my attitude now would be to just try to get along with them and plan to get out at the earliest opportunity, with your conscience intact and your resume untarnished. If it is a localized mundane commercial application, eg., nothing to do with say, public safety, life's too short for any other course. Received on Thu May 15 2008 - 16:41:38 CEST