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  #56  
Old September 28th, 2005, 03:26 PM
Amy Blankenship
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wrote in message
oups.com...

Amy Blankenship wrote:
Wow. Take a valium. I think everyone following this thread has absorbed
your point, but you can't make everyone agree with you. That's why we
have
Democrats and Republicans...because two people can look at the same set
of
facts and reach different conclusions based on them. That doesn't make
either side stupid or ignorant. It just means they see things in
different
ways.

Why do you care if I care?


Call me a caring person g. It bothers me that people who are
*rightly* considered experts in their field make misstatements which
are taken as 'gospel'.

This is all a bit 'emperor's new clothes' for me as it is. I don't
think prescribing me hypnotics will help, thanks Doctor. "Democrats and
Republicans"? This is a global community, so could you provide a global
analogy, please? In your country, are political commentators considered
sick and/or in need of drugs when they call on politicians to review
their policies when new evidence comes to light?

I think we should be constantly reviewing our advice to ensure it is
the best it can be, especially when we are propagating ideas in public
forum. I'm thinking of the common good, the best for everyone. I've
nothing to gain personally from this; my MVP status surely having been
secured already vbg.

What you are currently using PRIMARY KEY to mean you could replace with
NOT NULL UNIQUE constraints, then you would be free to use PRIMARY KEY
for something more appropriate. PRIMARY KEY may mean other things in
other SQL products but in Access/Jet it means 'super unique index'. Is
it good advice to recommend using your one 'super unique index' for the
table on a single incrementing INTEGER column?

I think the professional response would be, "Clustered index? I didn't
realize that. EITHER I will now alter the advice I give in future. OR
However, after due consideration, I have decided not to alter the
advise I give in future because | I think a monotonic INTEGER makes an
excellent clustered index. | I would be giving different advice from
that of my peers (I've got a reputation to protect). | some other
considered reason.

I don't think "I don't care" is a professional response. I genuinely
respect and thank you for your honesty, though.


How bout "after due consideration, I decided that whether or not it is a
clustered index is completely irrelevant to the applications I develop and
to most people who post to these groups, who only want to get the job done,
so I decided I don't care." The simple fact is that whether or not a
primary key creates a clustered index DOES NOT MATTER on a practical level
to most developers, as other considerations take priority
http://www.dbpd.com/vault/9805xtra.htm.

I'd like to point out that while I am a Team Macromedia Member, I am not an
MVP at this time. I just happen to be obsessive about answering questions.
One thing I have learned after many, many years of giving advice on forums
is that it really doesn't matter much how accurate or inaccurate advice is,
as users will accept the advice that is most in line with what they believe
they can do and also most in line with what they *thought* the solution was
going to be. By the same token, the fact that I am not as expert as I am
going to be next month or next year (or some other person is now) should not
prevent me from offering what help I can, because what help I do offer *is*
actually helping people.

I doubt *anyone* is currently being helped by your insistence that everyone
should care about clustered indexes as passionately as you do. It's a dead
horse. Find something more productive to beat.

-Amy