On Jan 19, 2010, at 8:50 AM, al davis wrote: >> On Jan 19, 2010, at 3:41 AM, Florian Teply wrote: >>> Anything else to add?? >> > > I guarantee you will leave something out, and that you will > include some useless stuff.
I agree. > Just make sure the design is such that fields can be added and > removed in the future without breaking anything. > > Same goes for device types, and lots of other stuff. The database administrator, using SQL, can add fields, remove fields, add categories, remove categories, join queries with other tables, etc... Basically, the DBA has full control. A user without SQL knowledge does not get the same level of control as the DBA. It would be difficult to give this user the same level of control as the DBA through a GUI. But, I would like to implement something for this user. Picking a couple part types, adding every parameter conceivable, then putting the data into a normal form helps flush out requirements. If the add column, remove column, add category and remove category operations can be completely defined with stored procedures or metadata, then the user without SQL knowledge is in luck. Otherwise, this user's database maybe a la carte. The user may have a set of checkboxes during database creation to define which parameters each device type contains. (The UI contains a feature to hide columns, so useless columns could always be hidden.) Cheers, Ed _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user