Dear Eric,

At 03:59 PM 06/12/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>The only thing it helps is laziness.

Or efficiency.

>What is to be gained from
>enforcing columns having the same type/length if they have the same
>name?

So you can just look at a column and instantly know its
characteristics, not have to refer to a list to determine
if it is this or that or the other.

>Being that no constraint is created, what is the point of
>enforcing that rule?   Tables are private containers unless constraints
>are deliberately written against them.  I don't want my application or
>database to do anything I don't tell it to do.  And if I didn't tell it
>to do something, that's my fault and I should do it properly in the
>first place.
>
>Does anybody write classes?  C++/VB/JAVA, ETC.  Imagine if your
>development environment made you create variables of the same type just
>because another class had a variable of the same name?

Just sounds like a common sense approach to consistency to me.
Any time I see an Eric or a Tom I am 99.999% sure it's a guy
I am addressing (not so sure about a Sami or Marni or Pat...).
:-)

Every time I look at Surname in BizMan I instantly know all the
characteristics of that label.   Believe me, by the time you get
to (let me check...) over 10,700 rows in your sys_columns table
this is a major, major, _major_ advantage.

If I were naming variables across classes I would choose to name
them the same if they were to hold the same type data and be of
the same data type.   I would name them differently otherwise.

To me aging viewpoint, any way I can increase the ease and speed
of communication, improve data retention and reduce confusion is
a valid technique to employ.   If I look at something and it is
not an instantly duplicatable communication then _something_ has
gotten in the road of the message that should be instantly
received.   Whether it is the signwriter who has painted on the
side of his van the telephone number in such a font that it is
extremely artistic but illegible or a programmer who calls
different things by the same name, are imperfect
communications and alike could stand improvement.

Better make that my 4 cents worth due to the Aussie dollar being
what it is. :-)

Warmest regards,


Tom Grimshaw
coy:    Just For You Software
tel:    612 9552 3311
fax:    612 9566 2164
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