>> Am I right to avoid to VIEWS within application code?
How one uses views is more a matter of taste and best practices, than
a matter of rules like this. Frankly, this "rule" sounds rather ill
conceived.
My feeling is that views can be difficult to maintain when they are
nested, but otherwise use them whenever they simplify matters. I also
feel that they should only be defined for when they represent, well,
views of the data that make sense in a long term way; don't use them
if for a one-off application.
As for performance -- let me reiterate: create the most elegant
design, possibly with views, and only worry about performance AFTER
PROFILING.
-W