ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Andrew Sullivan) writes: > On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 07:46:07PM -0400, brian wrote: >> >> Absolutely true. Which is odd, because this example is trotted out >> whenever there's a thread about ENUMs. > > I don't think it's odd at all. In my view, the people who think enums are a > good datatype for databases are exactly the sorts who'd think that their > data is as static as this poor understanding of the vagaries of individuals' > sex (gender is a different problem, given its association with social roles) > would suggest. > > The world moves around in unexpected ways. Your data model needs to > accommodate itself to the world, because the alternative is not going to > happen. By the same token, a limited model, at least in this area, frequently is sufficient to cover the set of ways in which legal systems recognize and consider gender when constructing legislation. And it's not evident that the simplification is a dramatic oversimplification that causes a great deal of legal failures to the extent to which it mandates that every system *needs* to track sex in a more detailed fashion than (male, female, unknown, n/a). I'm not sure, for instance, that I actually know what the word "phenotype" means, and there's reason to imagine I might be somewhat more "generally literate" than average. If I'm not sure, there seems little reason to expect that people with varying levels of comprehension necessarily be able to choose from a more elaborate set of options with accuracy. After spending literal billions of dollars on security efforts, it doesn't appear that security infrastructures that have *enormous* incentive have had much luck successfully identifying who is a terrorist and who is not; they consistently have extraordinary levels of "Type II" (false positive) reporting errors. -- let name="cbbrowne" and tld="acm.org" in name ^ "@" ^ tld;; http://cbbrowne.com/info/linuxdistributions.html "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home". -- Ken Olson, Pres. and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977
