On 04/04/2013 17:11, Paul Beach wrote: >> i wrote this RFC by request of one local company which have (as many others) >> wrote own replicator and got some issues which could be resolved very easy >> with a little support from the Firebird engine side. I think we could >> discuss it and >> determine if requested feature could add some value to the engine for wider >> audience. >> >> Their software (replicator) add's some service field(s) to the customer >> tables >> to track changes. In most cases it doesn't harm and customer software works >> as expected, i.e. ignores unknown for it new fields. But there are two cases >> when such service fields could change application's logic and even broke it. >> I >> mean queries where list of fields is not set explicitly by a programmer but >> expanded by the engine in run-time: >> a) select * from table >> b) insert into table values (...) >> >> So, the proposition is simple: add ability for engine to distinguish >> such service >> fields and not include it into auto expanded list of fields for table or >> view at the >> queries above. I.e. service fields is fully accessible if present in query >> text explicitly >> and "hidden" otherwise. >> >> I prefer to discuss implementation details after (if) we agreed on >> feasibility of >> such feature. >> >> Comments, ideas are welcome ;) > <<IMHO a hack, which shouldn't go into a public release. But that's just > my personal opinion. ;-)>> > > I'm with Thomas.. > Hmm, if they want this functionality in a private build/patch OK, but in the > public release? > I don't see how this benefits anybody... > Sorry. > > imho, first normal form is broken ... (don't get me started :-)
But this is an absolute classic problem with the format. How to separate data and metadata. No I don't have any answers (for RDBMSs, at least), but I sympathise with the problem. This is one of the pain points when trying to align reality with relational theory. It would be nice to have a solution (and no, views are not it). Cheers, Wol ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Minimize network downtime and maximize team effectiveness. Reduce network management and security costs.Learn how to hire the most talented Cisco Certified professionals. Visit the Employer Resources Portal http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/employer_resources/index.html Firebird-Devel mailing list, web interface at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-devel
