Hi,
I think i have reached a point in my PgSQL years
that i am seriously thinking of using inheritance.
The situation is simple: An new entity (tanker vessels crew)
is about to be modeled, and i suspect
there will be a future need to include
the rest of 'workers' besides 'sailors',
IOW i suspect a future need to generalize.
So i am thinking of a two-level tree hierarchy,
where there is a simple table emp (employee),
and a direct child 'tankerscrew'. Later
there may be 'masons', 'office_employees'
and so on.
The problem is that while i find this approach
attractive, i have never used PostgreSQL
inheritance exhaustively and in production scale.
Furthermore, i also feel that not many
people have used inheritance in a massive fashion
(besides playing with a test db).
Of course i can do it with separate uncoupled tables,
that can be later related with some views.
So that leads to the final question:
-What are the main PROs of inheritance that cant be beat
by other solutions, and
-Are there any traps someone must have in mind when he
prepares for such a design?
Thanx in advance.
--
-Achilleus