Re: My honours project - databases using dynamically attached entity-properties

On Mar 11, 12:47 pm, j...@agliodbs.com (Josh Berkus) wrote:
> No matter how much Heikki hates them, I think he'd agree that EAV tables are
> better than having the application execute DDL at runtime.

EAV moves the structure that is typically in the design of the tables
into the contents of the tables. With an EAV database you have
effectively destroyed the semantic difference between DML and DDL. I'm
willing to concede that there may be situations where EAV is actually
the right answer to a design problem. I have yet to encounter one, but
Josh has more experience, and more varied experience than I do. To me,
EAV is a perfect example of ignoring the YAGNI principal.

http://c2.com/xp/YouArentGonnaNeedIt.html

> > > What I'd basically like to know is
> > > a) Is this problem worth solving?

I think you're solving a symptom, not the root cause of the problem.
Clarify the root cause, and then you have an interesting project.

Andrew