-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dave Watts wrote:
>>I think that more points to a flaw in the concept of NULLs in SQL >>(which, as it happens, is one of the most criticised aspects of the >>language) than a flaw in MySQL per-se. > > It's one thing to observe a flaw in a language. It's another to use that > flaw as justification for an application's failure to conform to that > language. I don't see at all how one has to do with the other. As I said, I'm not defending MySQL. I'm saying that the behaviour of NULLs in SQL is, well, buggered. Attacking a DBMS, any DBMS on the way it handles them in various situations is a bit like shooting fish that are fastened to the barrel of your gun. The thing is, the overloading of NULL in various DBMSs probably made sense at the time. Just to taking the situation with MySQL, there are times where you're inserting a new record and you may or may not want the default value, but you'll only know at run time. A better solution would be to have a "USE_DEFAULT" keyword for that particular kind of null value or something like that, but extending the DML like that can be argued against easily too. What overloading NULL like that has in its favour is that if you're using the likes of prepared statements, you don't need to mess about the API, it just drops out of the implementation. I'm not saying that it's good. I'm just saying that its behaviour is no worse than that of any other DBMS when it comes to NULLs. There's things far more annoying in its behaviour than that. > On an unrelated note, I noticed that I can see better out of my right eye > than my left eye. So, to improve my driving, I started driving on the left > side of the road instead of the right side. I'm sure that will be a great > improvement. Yeah, depth perception of for the weak! :-) K. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFCndKOmSWF0pzlQ04RAnKJAJ0ajVfswfjBZ2z7R2lR/unBVtHfIQCfTQSD NfAQbKbMNY3W1t2EAi8vEq4= =IXRP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:208215 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
