Globally Unique IDs, was Re: [SQLObject] Re: SQLObject

[Bud P. B. <bu...@si...>]

On 11 Apr 2003 01:37:10 -0500
Ian Bicking <ia...@co...> wrote:

> > Another thought in this context is that PostgreSQL already inserts an
> > object id column for every table.  But maybe it's not a good idea to
> > use since other dbms don't have equivalents...
> > 
> > One thing on my wishlist would be to (optionally) create a globally
> > unique id for the object.  That could be controlled by an additional
> > option "globallyUnique=True" that would go together with PrimaryKey,
> > Unique, or alternateID (i.e., everything that implies Unique).  
> 
> You mean add OIDs onto the databases that don't have it.  MiddleKit does
> this, and it's one thing that annoyed me about it, though I can
> understand the motivation.  It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure
> how to make it work within the bounds of SQL, and in a way that's both
> useful and transparent.

Nope, the second paragraph I wrote above is totally independent of the
first...  To reword it in a more clear way (hopefully), I thought that
instead of a relatively short integer for id that makes it unique in
the table (or maybe the database?), to use a much longer id that is
globally unique (at least with a very high probability).  This is
called different names by different people...  There are algorithms
around to do it.  They typically take things like the MAC address of
the machine and the time into account...

The benefit of globally unique id's is that it makes future database
mergers and restructuring in organizations MUCH easier...

--b

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