From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM, T_FILL_THIS_FORM_SHORT autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1116ece181be1aea X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-17 15:52:41 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.mathworks.com!wn13feed!wn11feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!rwcrnsc53.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F9072A7.9020308@comcast.net> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: A nongeneric bounded string array type (in database code) References: <3F7AC5B0.9080108@noplace.com> <3F7B7641.9030908@noplace.com> <3F7C8482.20102@comcast.net> <3F7D69EA.5030707@noplace.com> <3F7E2740.1050703@comcast.net> <3F7EBD85.8080205@noplace.com> <3F819C99.6080904@cogeco.ca> <3F844FE9.7030500@comcast.net> <3F86EEE3.4030600@comcast.net> <3F8EAF65.2030305@comcast.net> <3F8F2D7B.6060307@comcast.net> <3F900527.3080103@comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.139.183 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-Trace: rwcrnsc53 1066431160 24.34.139.183 (Fri, 17 Oct 2003 22:52:40 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 22:52:40 GMT Organization: Comcast Online Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 22:52:40 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:1109 Date: 2003-10-17T22:52:40+00:00 List-Id: Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote: > Well, the null handling definitely is lacking. No type strength, > and all numerics must be marshalled into and out of strings, with > of course, no type checking either. Ad-hoc queries must adopt the > strangest of null conventions; certainly non-standard ones! Of course, I don't use strings for numeric data, and when I use non-standard characters to represent a null text field they are the only string there (with the curious exception of MIO). I think you have a different vision of what I am doing than what is actually going on. I don't have a record type in the database, but rows which can be indexed or selected based on using one field as an index. (More usually, one field for selection, and others for primary and secondary sort indexes.) Then, in our example, I would be pulling out last name, first name, middle name, street address, town, state, zip, phone-number, or whatever. I find it much easier to build a web-page with a "few" records displayed left to right instead of top to bottom. The nice thing is that instead of choosing some arbitrary spacing for columns, I can make each column as large (or small) as it needs to be. All this gets real complicated to explain and very easy to write. -- Robert I. Eachus "Quality is the Buddha. Quality is scientific reality. Quality is the goal of Art. It remains to work these concepts into a practical, down-to-earth context, and for this there is nothing more practical or down-to-earth than what I have been talking about all along...the repair of an old motorcycle." -- from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig