use Perl

• If they are readonly... (Score:1)

  by Alias (5735)

  Can you convert the old tables to back-compatibility views on the new table(s)?

  BTW, that essay was in the actual MySQL documentation. And it was removed, of course, once foreign key constraints were added.
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709)

    We have no desire to add views to provide backwards-compatibility. This should (usually) be considered a "last resort" because otherwise, you layer on view after view every time you want to change a feature and thing become a mess. Plus, they're willing to make the switch, just not yet.
• Missing Essay (Score:1)

  by Smylers (2592)

  that essay was in the actual MySQL documentation. And it was removed, of course, once foreign key constraints were added.

  The Wayback Machine to the rescue [archive.org]. It's even worse than I remember it:

  There are so many problems with foreign key constraints that we don't know where to start:

  • Foreign key constraints make life very complicated ...
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Ovid (2709)

    Thanks Smylers. Wow, I remember that essay being:

    • Longer
    • Not so full of the Dumb

    I really like the bit about:

    FOREIGN KEY constraint checks are useless because you usually insert records in the right tables in the right order

    .

    But they don't totally trash foreign keys! In fact, they make it clear that their is one (and only one) good reason for them.

    The only nice aspect of FOREIGN KEY is that it gives ODBC and some other client programs the ability to see how a table is connected and to use this to show connection diagrams and to help in building applicatons (sic).

    Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh :)
    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Aristotle (5147)

      I remember that essay being longer and not so full of the Dumb

      That’s probably because there also exists a later revision of that page [archive.org] that stayed around for much longer. The first, short, really stupid version lasted 10 months before it was replaced with the tempered version that stayed around for 4 years.