Re: Anybody home?

[Hector Mandel <mandel@oxbox.cso.uiuc.edu>]

Edwin Jackson wrote:

> If the tables are normalized and the structure clearly organized the
> relational database created using modern pc based database management
> systems should be reasonably portable.
> 


I can't disagree with that.  My point is that one must design the relational  
database *first*, based on one's enterprise.  It should work on paper and it  
must be customized, normalized and then coded.  For a large radiation safety  
program, applying someon else's portable database without first going through  
the process of analyzing one's own enterprise is a recipe for failure.

If one's enterprise is complex, doing this properly requires a programmer and  
a health physicist to work together in the design stages.  A complex system  
will require ongoing maintenance, and regardless of how well it's written, it  
will eventually need to be redone in order to keep up with changes in the  
enterprise.
---


      Hector Mandel, Manager of Systems Services  | (217) 244-7237
      OCCSS, CCSO - Computing                     | h-mandel@uiuc.edu
      University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  | pager 53171