[ic] database table redesign

[Jay Sun]

I agree.
It is a classical trade off between  design priciple and real-world applications.  We all learned the principle of 2nf, 3nf, ..., but miniVend was a 
quick and dirty hack, not a classroom example. But 
it works, and has been added more useful features all the time.  You want to reign this devil back to the box ?  the theory does not appeal to me as it used to anymore, and I would rather use this good tool, and tweak it if necessary.  I aint gonna to fix it if it aint broke.

J. Sun
http://suniant.com/
 
--

On Fri, 4 Apr 2003 22:37:25   
 Mike Heins wrote:


>
>3NF design is great for a rigid application where people will not be
>customizing it at the database level. It can increase reliability. But
>there have been no compelling arguments against our implementation; just
>"it doesn't seem right".
>
>3NF is not so great when people want to switch between databases
>easily, or for rapid development. I have had battles with such
>applications where I try to restructure something in the midst
>of dozens of tables, only to fall victim to a constraint that
>is buried in some other table definition or stored procedure.
>
>Interchange encourages you to tailor the database to your needs;
>particularly in the products area. Lack of constraints and relations
>makes it easy to add and remove fields.
>
>There is one part of IC which is relatively fixed in practice;
>userdb, transactions, and orderline (because the UI needs to
>have some consistency for its order applications).
>
>We indeed have thought about adding an address database for
>userdb, but no one has done the necessary work for it. Most of
>the new features of IC have come from clients paying me (or 
>occasionally others) to add them.
>
>Bear in mind that IC will work just fine with a table structure that
>you design, 3NF or no. It is just that you may have to design the UI
>part, too. 8-)
>
>-- 
>Mike Heins
>Perusion -- Expert Interchange Consulting    http://www.perusion.com/
>phone +1.513.523.7621      <mike@perusion.com>
>
>I have a cop friend who thinks he ought be able to give a new ticket;
>"too dumb for conditions".
>_______________________________________________
>interchange-users mailing list
>interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
>http://www.icdevgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
>


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