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• It's amazing how great minds work alike! Here is a snippet of PowerDesigner's Physical Data Model Integrity panel:

  

  And here is a snippet from the Primary Key window in InTek's Vivid Clairty:

  

  The similarity here amazes me, considering that "Change parent allowed" is a rather idiosyncratic way of noting what Chen, Barker, and others refer to as "transferability" of a foreign key relationship. I guess perhaps the developers from SDP and InTek may have studied at the feet of the same guru.

• How many major ($$$, person/year, user) systems projects are proceeding at this very moment, headlong toward catastrophe, with neither formal data definitions nor a method to acquire them? I bet the answer is "Most". The proliferation of desktop development tools like VB, PB, Access, Delphi, et al only encourages amateur hackers to expand their ambitions. Better leave that to the professional hackers who can really make a mess of things fast!

• What will Microsoft's client/server platform be for its much sought after enterprise customers? You think VB4? I think not. Access you say? It's fine for a quick start on a few thousand rows but wait till it grows ... Do I hear some old Fox hounds baying at the moon? Can XBASE really make it into the corporate glass house (again - for those of you who remember Clipper)? I think the Microsofties have to come up with something better to play in the same fields as Seer, IEF, Uniface, Forte, Dynasty, and, yes, even PowerBuilder. Will Apollo, er, Bill slay the Python and usurp the Oracle of Delphi? Why all the Greek mythology?

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