CASE (was Re: Database Builders, Code Generators, On-Topic?)

"Kenneth Downs" <ken_remove_underscores_downs_at_downsfam.net> wrote in message news:0gvrab.dhl.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
> Quoting unnamed sources, Bob Badour claimed:
>
> > "Kenneth Downs" <MyUseNetHandle_at_linuxmail.org> wrote in message
> > news:e3arab.kkk.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
> >> Hi folks. I've been lurking here for a few weeks now and have made a
> >> post or two, but up until now have not started a thread.
> >>
> >> There is a topic close to my heart which I do not see discussed here
> >> much,
> >> and I wonder if it is considered topical. Briefly, I spend my days
> >> designing and implementing data-driven systems, wherein we use a
> > collection
> >> of tables that describe tables, columns, keys, references and so forth.
> >
> > This sounds suspiciously like a system catalog.
>

[snip]

To me it sounds like you have created something similiar to one of the many functions of a CASE tool and CASE repository, particularly ones that provide focus on database modeling.

> Upgrades are actually the first reason I developed early versions of this
> system, when I was working independently 7-8 years ago. The flow is:
>
> 1. Our catalog equals "what I want"
> 2. The system catalog reveals "what is"
> 3. Generate a bunch of DDL to turn "what is" into "What I want"
> 4. Optionally Execute. Or stop and report the intended plan for
> review, approval, etc.
>
> This has the nifty added advantage that a first time installation is the
> same as an upgrade. If "what is" is empty, it builds the entire database.
>
...again, case tools with 4GL. Unless I'm missing aspects that differentiate the development framework (specification vs. implementation) you describe from what robust commercial CASE applications provide...the whole objective seeming to me to be to mechanize the database development and schema evolution process/environment with a dose of discipline.

[snip]

>
> --
> Kenneth Downs
>

Regards,

Dan Guntermann Received on Mon May 26 2003 - 21:16:19 CEST