On Thu, Jan 15, 1998 at 10:58:22PM +0000, Ralf Mattes wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Karl Denninger wrote:
>
> > > > The last we discussed in pgsql-hackers was that OIDs would not be
> > > > dropped...
> > >
> > > ..but would be optional.
> > > Vadim
>
> Phew, safed some code... :-)
>
> > OIDs are a bastardization of the relational model. If you have to keep
> > them, then do so, but their use should be SEVERELY discouraged.
>
> Yes, shure, but Postgres (and many com. systems) isn't afull im-
> plementation of the relational model. And sometimes i's very handy
> to be able ti identify a specific record/tuple (i use them in front
> end user interfaces. The interface stores the oid of the currently
> displayed record--if the user changes/deletes the record it's easy
> to do an update/delete. Even so it's possible to store the unique
> index key this is much more elaborate to implement and is a pain
> when the table definitions aren't hardcoded in the frontend
> application). I don't see why oids per se violate the relational
> model (and of course when some of my dbs started there was nothing
> like 'unique key' in postgres and in some theunique key stretches
> over several fields...(
>
> Ralf
Unique indices over multiple fields are both legal and work, and do what you
would expect.
I understand why people like OIDs - "row numbers" are useful to lots of
folks. That doesn't change the fact that they are a throwback and I can't
find much of a good reason to use them in a relational world.
I've done a *lot* of DBMS coding over the last 15 years, with a boatload of
it on custom database packages that didn't do relational anything :-)
Frankly, the faster and further I can get away from the concept of a
row ID, the better I feel.
--
--
Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin
http://www.mcs.net/ | T1's from $600 monthly to FULL DS-3 Service
| NEW! K56Flex support on ALL modems
Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| EXCLUSIVE NEW FEATURE ON ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | *SPAMBLOCK* Technology now included at no cost