Multivalue in Access triggers religious war
The Register managed to inflame the faithful on all sides with its comments on the addition of multivalue datatypes to Access. Trying to soothe(?) matters, Mark Whitehorn makes some astute comments about data models in general. One of my favorite parts is some armchair psychology about people who, having learned one complex system, grow attached to it, regard it as the One True Way, and regard all alternatives as the work of the Devil. My other favorite part is this analogy:
Asking for my opinion on, for example, the multi-valued data type (MVDT) is like asking whether I approve of dynamite or not. I don’t have a view either way until I know the context.
“So, Mark, you think it is appropriate to carry dynamite in a crowded street do you?” No, of course not. The urban environment provides a very poor context for explosives. What about using it in controlled conditions to remove tree-stumps from the ground? Fine. …
In other words, neither dynamite nor MVDTs inherently display any “good” or “bad” qualities whatsoever. Such attributes depend entirely upon context.
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[...] Mark Whitehorn had a good article on the importance of horses-for-courses context. But Tom Kyte said the same thing more concisely: I believe strongly – and more strongly every day – that there are only two possible answers to a “first question”. They are: [...]