From: HF
To: Editor
 
I know your position on auto increment keys very well, having read through the chapter in your book, and have used your recommended practices for many years.  In the hands of an experienced logical to physical modeler, they can be used to advantage.

However there is a huge negative side to them.  The industry is infested with hordes who cannot perform logical modeling, who have no expertise in identifying entities and their business keys, and who feel themselves qualified to design databases.  Auto increments are a godsend to them! They do not have to think for one second what constitutes an entity - business key analysis can remain a closed book to them - all they have to do is pluck a term from the universe of discourse and throw an auto increment at it, do this often enough and they have a complete database.

I am in the middle of an attempt to recover an enterprise database from this kind of abuse. If it were merely a logical problem it would be relatively easy, but as this database has become the current reality it is a political problem as well. 

Fabian Pascal Responds: Right. That has been my point throughout: that thinking is hard and is to be avoided; and that the industry is geared to relieve people from thinking, which also happens to be politically dangerous.

You’ve just provided further confirmation that there is a heavy price to pay for it.

Posted 08/08/03

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