On 20 Aug 2008 at 7:08, dhbailey wrote: > Flat-file databases are wonderful for things like membership > lists and other lists where the data from one record to the > next is almost never duplicated.
Membership databases are another one of those applications that seems very straightforward, but when you get into it, can be quite complex. I've built many of them over the years, and each has its own set of problems, according to the needs of the particular users. As soon as you want to track how many time you've contacted the member, or when they paid their membership fee, or any number of other things that can happen more than once, you end up having outgrown any flat structure. And in my experience, this happens much more quickly than most people anticipate! Even mailing lists are most often unsuitable to a flat structure -- as soon as you need to track more than one address, or more than one phone number/email, then you need other tables. If you don't, you end up with all sorts of problems in terms of searching and outputing data. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
