Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cimshop!davidm From: cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Views (was Re: Database design) Message-ID: Date: 27 Aug 90 17:32:40 GMT References: <1990Aug21.182201.10707@oracle.com> <1990Aug25.213536.17280@oracle.com> Sender: davidm@cimshop.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California. Lines: 38 In-reply-to: mfriedma@oracle.com's message of 25 Aug 90 21:35:36 GMT In article <1990Aug25.213536.17280@oracle.com> mfriedma@oracle.com (Michael Friedman) writes: In article cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) writes: >In article <1990Aug21.182201.10707@oracle.com> mfriedma@oracle.com >(Michael Friedman) writes: >> Don't bother messing with views. >> >This seems to be a general statement within the community. Why hasn't more >emphasis been put on "views" as a mechanism for increasing the insulation >between and application program and the database design? Isn't this what >the model of views was to support? Hey, this isn't fair. I was responding to a particular problem. The person who posted was making an inappropriate use of views to solve a problem in an extremely awkward manner. I would never tell someone to avoid views in general. Ooops, sorry. I didn't mean that to seem like I was picking on you. It just seemed like a good, general question to ask. Also, "the community" should not be read as "the vendors, alone". I've been a little disappointed (to say the least) with the capabilities of views that I've seen. For instance, can any vendors of applications built on a relational database (or anyone else, for that matter) suggest a good method of user security? Views seemed to be the method of providing restrictions on tables so that users see only what they are supposed to see. However, a vendor of an application has no users (and, therefore, no views) until he sells the product, so how can he build his product without knowing what the views are and how many there will be? Must the application designer move his security into the application and, so, remove responsibilities from the user's DBA? -- ==================================================================== David Masterson Consilium, Inc. uunet!cimshop!davidm Mtn. View, CA 94043 ==================================================================== "If someone thinks they know what I said, then I didn't say it!"