Is there some attribute(s) of the protein that makes it combine with only
certain starches of a certain attribute? Are there attributes of vegetables
that make them only compatible with certain starches and proteins? Are
there combining rules or are the combinations preset? Will you need logic in
an application to say what items combine with which other items? The number
of items you are talking about combining would seem to require attributes
matching rules, otherwise manually configuring the various combinations
would seemingly get exceedingly difficult as the sets of items begin to
expand.
... it sounds like a fun project.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James
H. H. Lampert
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 1:35 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Database design issue: seems really bad, yet I'm having trouble
coming up with anything better
On 12/10/14 10:13 AM, Monnier, Gary wrote:
For your scenario:
Two tables to define the meal..
One table for the meal (header) the protein/non-protein (must be in
the proteins master table).
- Tofu is a protein albeit not meat of any sort.
- The non-protein entry in the protein master may be described as
desired: maybe as Air or Protein-Free?
One table for the addition dishes for the meal (detail)
- dish type (starch, vegetable, etc.)
- dish ID (ID must be in the corresponding master table)
Keep in mind that the food analogy here is exactly that: an analogy.
We're not really talking about food here, except as a metaphor for the real
world situation (which I'm not at liberty to discuss). We can assume that,
for the sake of the analogy, the protein file has non-meat records including
(but not limited to) "tofu," "TVP," "Scrambled eggs,"
"overripe Limburger," "peanut butter," and "nothing at all."
And indeed, the food analogy breaks down on the conceit that only certain
starches and vegetables are compatible with any given protein.
If I want to have poultry dressing, Yorkshire pudding, and carrot mousse
with Spam piccata, it may be a weird combination, but it's certainly
possible. In the real world scenario, we can assume that dressing ONLY goes
with poultry dishes, and Yorkshire pudding ONLY goes with roast beef.
Now, the obvious answer to me, if everything were closed-ended, would be
either (1) to have a bitmap (or more likely byte-map) field in the starch
and vegetable fields, with one element for every protein, indicating
compatibility, or (2) to have two bitmaps in the protein file, indicating
the compatible starches and vegetables. The problem with this is that it's
inherently closed-ended, and even if some expansion space were built into
the bitmaps, it would be necessary to change the structure if that expansion
space were exceeded.
--
JHHL
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