Re: RDBMS design issue

On 7/9/2025 1:15 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
 [...]

We don't write names and addresses on scraps of paper and toss
them in a large box --

 Oh?

Some people use index cards (hardly "scraps of paper" tossed in a box).
" -- because that would be a horrid way of retrieving that information."
Folks who do so are relying on their own memories to know what each of
those cards "means".
Hand someone your phone.  Ask them to call your "sister-in-law".
Or "dentist".  Or any of the other references you keep, there.
We have "emergency contacts" because no one would know WHICH
entry in your address book is "most significant" in such an
instance.
Because, without knowledge of the relationships you have to those
people SPELLED OUT in the dataset, only the owner of that information
can make sense of it.  You can't expect another agency to be able
to make good use of the data because they are just "names" with
no significance attached.
Have a look at your spouse/lover's phone.  Someone you LIKELY know
with some intimacy.  How many of their contacts can you suss out?
[It's actually an interesting exercise.]
"Oh, I didn't know Yvonne's last name was Shicklgruder!"  How
many folks put "Mom" in their phone book instead of her real name?
One of my colleagues names is Zbigniew.  Of course, no one calls him
that.  Just like everyone calls Ruth, down the street, "Elaine".  Yet,
mail is addressed to "Ruth".  I've an entry for "Papa Smurf" in my
phone.  *I* know who it is.  You, OTOH, would have to phone and ASK
the person who picks up the receiver!
You can't create information out of thin air.  If you don't ENCODE
the information that resides IN YOUR HEAD in a meaningful way,
then no one else can be expected to be able to use it.