On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, damorgan_at_x.washington.edu wrote:
> Galen Boyer wrote:
>
>> On 12 Oct 2004, wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au wrote:
>>
>>>Galen Boyer <galenboyer_at_hotpop.com> wrote in message
>>>
>>>>Maybe someone needs to define a "natural key". Seems to me,
>>>>it is a key that some other system has already defined.
>>>
>>> The actual choice of a natural key can be in fact a very
>>> nasty problem. And by no means easy. Some times what
>>>appears to be a sensible choice turns up to be a disaster
>>> a few months down the line.
>> This is another positive for surrogates. One can design their
>> database and get their application development underway
>> without knowing all the sources of data.
>
> Most people start writing code without having signed-off specs
> too. That doesn't mean you'll ever find me endorsing that
> practice in public.
I'm working on a very successful application and we started
without knowing everything about how it would end up. There is
such a concept as "analysis paralysis".
--
Galen Boyer
Received on Thu Oct 14 2004 - 07:31:12 CDT
