Re: Surrogate Key vs Production Key

>> Actually, VIN is a very good example of a "natural" key one should
_not_ use, because it is unnatural and the original designers thought it would be replaced with something else by now. <<

1. What else would you use for a vehicle, if not the VIN? Walk out to your car and try and find anything else. If you are into autonumbered surrogates, you can use the current parking space number, I suppose :)
2. Did you read your own link? The article is about how they are working on the next version of the VIN! You can also look up the changes to the UPC and ISBN numbers that will be here shortly.

Bar Code Detente: U.S. Finally Adds One More Digit (2004 July 12, NYT) By STEVE LOHR
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/business/12barcode.html?ex=1090648405&ei=1&en=202cb9baba72e846  

There are a lot of changes coming in many of the standard codes. The world is bigger and more interconnected than before. The beautiful part about industry standard codes is that:

1. They can be verified with a trusted source or on the physical entity
2. They usually have a validation rule (check digit, regualr expression, etc.)
3. Some other poor bastard is doing all the work of maintaining them for me.