----- Original Message -----
From: "Orr, Steve" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 6:09 PM
Subject: RE: Column Header/ Column Description
> Metadata in the database is NOT a bad idea! It's a basic part of the
> relational model, Codd's 4th rule. (E. F. Codd is the originator of the
> relational model.) While no one has implemented all 12 of Codd's rules,
this
> is pretty basic/easy.
>
> Here's the 4th rule: "The database description is represented at the
logical
> level in the same way as ordinary data, so authorized users can apply the
> same relational language to its interrogation as they apply to regular
> data."
>
> I'm not a relational purist but metadata documentation about the database
> should be maintained in the database and there's no reason for it to be
> viewed as unnecessary overhead that would somehow slow down non-metadata
> queries.
In my opinion, I believe what Codd is describing here is the ability to get
to the DDL via the relational model, which MySQL does support. His notion of
metadata is table names, column names, column types, nullability, etc., not
comments about the structure of the table. I don't consider documentation
metadata, necessarily.
-Mark
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