>So you are able to design your "real" applications completely without any
>problems, huh? Never have a missing attribute; never an extra attribute;
>never an attribute in the wrong table; never having to
>split/normalize/denormalize for performance or other reasons, huh? You are
>amazing -- and a liar.
It's nice to see that you're keeping this discussion on such a high level.
I never said "never." Occationally I will have to add a field or two to
accomodate a different requirement. When I have to remove a field, I use
the procedure outlined above, and have kept the design documentation so that
I can recreate the triggers/constraints/etc. for those fields that require
it. I tend to do most of my triggers and constraints and such in my code,
not in the database itself because of the current lack of an error number
(at least in 7.0.2). I have to translate the response I get back to find
out what the true problem was so I can act accordingly. That is being
worked on.
Personally, I'd trade a free select into/rename/drop for an Oracle drop
column any day. Besides, where would I find such friendly conversation to
help when I have a problem?
Happy Valentine's Day. :-)
len morgan