by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Monday November 09, 2020 @12:53PM (#60703598)
It depends on the application. Are you designing a payroll system, an e-mail system, or another system designed for adults who are part of society? Then yes of course you can assume people have names. Are you designing a system that accounts for people with unknown names (e.g. a hospital admission system or a police report system)? Then you need to account for that.
Are you accounting for newborns? Then they don't have names either and you need to account for people who are related to known people but don't have names. Probably should give a bit of wiggle room on that period of time... what if your system assumes names will be assigned with 365 days and for whatever reason you get a customer whose baby hasn't been named for 400 days. Maybe flag those entries for review if you have a six year old missing a name but don't write a SQL trigger to outright prohibit missing names.
There are a ton of other assumptions which can be made by people writing real world systems. Sorry The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, but our system can't accomodate your symbol and you'll have to put another name into the database. By the way ALL passports have to have your name in roman letters so maybe that is a good one to use. Same thing for the other assumptions about having an unchanging name etc. -- if your name is constant enough to have a passport it's constant enough to sign up for electricity service or whatever. The reality of modern life is that the database needs a name so quit being a tool. You can celebrate your culture with your mom and dad and Chewbacca on Life Day but none of the rest of us care about that.
This has never been more obligatory (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who says "people have names" is a wrong assumption can be safely dismissed as a crank.
Re:This has never been more obligatory (Score:1)
It depends on the application. Are you designing a payroll system, an e-mail system, or another system designed for adults who are part of society? Then yes of course you can assume people have names. Are you designing a system that accounts for people with unknown names (e.g. a hospital admission system or a police report system)? Then you need to account for that.
Are you accounting for newborns? Then they don't have names either and you need to account for people who are related to known people but don't have names. Probably should give a bit of wiggle room on that period of time ... what if your system assumes names will be assigned with 365 days and for whatever reason you get a customer whose baby hasn't been named for 400 days. Maybe flag those entries for review if you have a six year old missing a name but don't write a SQL trigger to outright prohibit missing names.
There are a ton of other assumptions which can be made by people writing real world systems. Sorry The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, but our system can't accomodate your symbol and you'll have to put another name into the database. By the way ALL passports have to have your name in roman letters so maybe that is a good one to use. Same thing for the other assumptions about having an unchanging name etc. -- if your name is constant enough to have a passport it's constant enough to sign up for electricity service or whatever. The reality of modern life is that the database needs a name so quit being a tool. You can celebrate your culture with your mom and dad and Chewbacca on Life Day but none of the rest of us care about that.