Posted by --CELKO-- on 09/27/90 11:38

>> Tables are unordered, but a view's not a table, as far as I understand it.<<

Someone here NEVER had a single SQL class. VIEWs are virtual tables.
In fact, the only data structure in SQL is a table. Next yhou will be
calling a coumn, a FIELD! Duh! You did that!!

>> don't see any problem at all with disambiguating the elements of my select statement with the table name qualifier and I'm not going to stop what I consider a good practice just because you think it is something newbies do. <<

In a data model. we design a data dictionary. It defines the meaning
of each datra element (see ISO-11179) .. These names have nothing to
do with the PHYSICAL storage used, the table in which the elemetn
appears, etc.

>> but I'm not going to completely rewrite this application because a handful of the field [sic] names are bad. It was in production for over 3 years before I even started .. <<

I seem to get a call in about 3-5 years into production. The system
was falling apart in year one, but people could patch it. Then they
wanted to port it to larger platform. Theyn try. Then it falls on it
face when people depend on it.

Then I re-write the system at ana insanely large fee.

>> Sadly, I have to develop this application in the real world, where sometimes I have to put up with less than ideal code created by someone else. <<

The fifth labor of Hercules was to clean the stables of King Augeas in
a single day. The Augean stables held thousands of animals and were
over a mile long. This story has a happy ending for three reasons: (1)
Hercules solved the problem in a clever way (2) Hercules got one tenth
of the cattle for his work (3) At the end of the story of the Labors of
Hercules, he got to kill the bastard that gave him this job.

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