On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 4:09 PM, Howard Rogers <hjr@diznix.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 12:35 AM, Peter Hunsberger
> <peter.hunsberger@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:13 PM, Howard Rogers <hjr@diznix.com> wrote:
> >>
> there's a room-full of users who can look
> at code '4097' and know precisely what it means and would be mortified
> if I suddenly started displaying exactly the same meanings in what, to
> them, would look like utter gibberish.
>
In that case, you shouldn't be describing the column as "some encoded
bit of magic" here. It clearly has some some semantic meaning which
gives you a reason to want to keep it that way. Though why your users
are dealing with the raw values as stored in the database may be
another issue to deal with: Personally, I'd say store it in the way
that is easiest for your application logic to deal with, display it in
the form that is easiest for your users to deal with. The are often
two completely different things...
--
Peter Hunsberger