I don't know if I can fully convey the depth of feeling that
thread brought me.

I had been working with SQL long enough that it was starting
to really gel for me. I really felt like I had a solid handle on it,
not just *how* to make it do stuff but *why* doing things one
way worked well and doing things a different way didn't work
well. Call me a solid journeyman at that point; a promising
intermediate, perhaps.

And I was starting to notice: people don't *get* it. It seemed like
no one got it. People I knew who I respected wanted to have
globally unique keys, or they wanted every table to have a
single integer primary key, even wanting to add them to tables
that were just two-fk join tables. Any of a host of crazy things.
One can just read the current thread with comp.object for
more examples.

I had only two hypotheses: either the entire world was mad, or
I was. Neither possibility was appealing.

Then that thread happened. And suddenly it was clear: I'm not
alone! Other people have the exact same problems, the same
frustrations. Even better: some of them are a lot further along
in this process, and I can learn from them. I am not speaking
of the problems of database theory, you understand. I am
speaking of the Curse of Cassandra.

Maybe it has become exaggerated in hindsight. Or perhaps
more likely, that thread has become emblematic of the entire
years-long process that I went through; shrunk in the machine
press of memory to a single cubic foot of twisted metal.

Still, when I run into those don't-get-it people, what appears
in my mind's eye is David Letterman, speaking in the voice
of David Cressey, reading off a five-by-eight index card,
dramatically and ironically announcing over a drumroll:

"And the number one stupid database trick: enforcing
integrity in the application."

And the audience applauds thunderously, and I am they
and they are I.

Marshall