Dann,
> The primary key should be immutable, meaning that its value should not be
> changed during the course of normal operations of the database.
Why? I don't find this statement to be self-evident. Why would we have ON
UPDATE CASCADE if keys didn't change sometimes?
> At any rate, the use of natural keys is a mistake made by people who have
> never had to deal with very large database systems.
Oh, I guess I'm dumb then. The biggest database system I ever had to deal
with was merely 5 TB ...
Anyway, my opinion on this, in detail, will be on the ITToolBox blog. You can
argue with me there.
--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco