creating usable records - warning: long question

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, May 31, 2004 at 12:54:41AM -0400, John Esak wrote:
>    I  suppose  I  could say I'm curious and ask why you need to do things
>    this  way,  but  you  don't  have  to tell me... no need to defend the
>    idea...  it's enough that you are doing it and feel you need to... but
>    I  submit  to  you  that  there  is  _nothing_ that you can do using a
>    record-number-based system that can't be done far better with a unique
>    numbered field.

And of course you're correct.  But in Lee's defense, he *did* say:

>    Also...  I know that the reason I need to do such a thing is a mistake
>    made  many years ago to use record numbers as ID numbers under certain
>    circumstances.   I  know  it  is  not good programming, but it has not
>    burned me very many times and to change now would not be worth it.

so clearly, he already knows that, and is stuck between the proverbial
rock and hard place.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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        "They had engineers in my day, too."  -- Perry Vance Nelson