IC2. IMO, the OS file system names are a poor choice as a database
container, even if WinFS pops up someday with some nice OS database
features. It seems that your customer has taken the concept to its
illogical extreme. Many years ago I had a customer that really wanted
data with "clever" enhancements that would enable him to categorize
the data by sight - obviously something to avoid putting into the
actual data from a database perspective. Yet such idiosyncrasies are
typical of the situations asked for by customers. Ideally, you want
to accommodate the customer's desires without resorting to
questionable database practices. I.e., some ingenuity is in order to
accomplish both. I think your customer has passed the point where
satisfying both goals is possible. From my experience, even when
satisfying both goals is possible, using the OS file names as a pseudo
database leads to inefficiencies that increase dramatically over time.
James A. Fortune
[email protected]