|
From: | Horst Herb |
Subject: | Re: [Gnumed-devel] safe handling of end-user extensibility |
Date: | Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:19:02 +1000 |
User-agent: | Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.1a) Gecko/20020611 |
address@hidden wrote:
Along the same lines is there a _real_ advantage to using symbolic IDs instead of numeric ones ? "usr_referral_ENT" and "sys_discharge_summary_surgery" as opposed to 513 and 15 ? Or is this just a virtual benefit of a better feel for human beings ?
Database theory says that primary keys should not bear a meaning unless it is guaranteed to be immutable. Little else but the sequence of numbers we allocate is guaranteed to be immutable. If you chose not to denormalize this table - which you may if you have good reasons not to - you will be free to name that attribute whatever you like
BTW, I think there is another - and maybe more palatable option besides your 1-3: a global gnumed repository where users suggest additions/modifications which are then shared (if desired) with the rest of the gnumed community. All it takes is central allocation of IDs. No problem to set up a few servers allocating such IDs - the effect would be that we ratin ease of record transfer and circumvent all ambiguities.
Horst
[Prev in Thread] | Current Thread | [Next in Thread] |