Re: Strange Wierdness with SQLServer Bit fields and SQLProvider

> And, Marc, when I saw your list of accomplishments in your last post, I
> said, "This guy is more experienced than he sounds. Why doesn't he get it?"

I do get it... I get that it is easier to code default value logic in
one place... that "optional" FK values are most consistently handled
by pointing at the NullObject that then stands in for ALL the behavior
you wish to associate with what you call "missing".  It's got to be
codified somewhere, why not put it in one place and just be done with
it.

> bones in a world where people die when mistakes happen ... and my null
> didn't kill no one

Excellent, so I respect that... and I also respect that we can
disagree (and said so), unfortunately you have no such respect for my
experiences or knowlege.

> (the system you would have dependeded on as if sent to you from heaven)

Actually, no.  Most of the medical instrumentation I had to deal with
was riddled with stupid bugs and exceptions that constantly had to be
handled by every lab vendor.  There was one instrument of the 100s
that I wrote interfaces for that I actually felt was well-designed and
executed, the Beckman CX-7.  In a bit of justice served.  The
interface specification it used (IEEE-1394) clearly spelled out what
should happen for each missing value/missing relationship.

> in that world, I used the equivalent of a null as an elegant indicator that,
> for instance, a cache query on my little logic board is a hit or a miss
> before I look in conventional memory.

Again, you are conflating some in-memory discussion of null with what
I was talking about from the beginning. I was talking about SQL NULL.
Anything else you are bringing into the discussion, not me.

> <joke> And following Marc's law, if you see that I am a 'Dr', it means I
> paid lot and lots of fees! That should still buy me some consideration.
> </joke>

You don't read very well.  I said that CS degrees don't necessarily
indicate any knowlege.  That doesn't preclude that people holding
those degrees has any knowlege.

> On a serious note: The moral in this interchange between Marc and myself is
> that being enormously successful can lead one to still end up like some:
> become over-prescriptive, scoff as 'evil' anything that you didn't like or
> was out of your reach or over your head even in your hay day ... and
> intimidate junior colleagues, poking holes in all their decisions ... your
> colleagues come to the community forum with a problem, you don't suggest a
> solution to them, you start picking unrelated holes in their system and
> using your narrow worldview as law.

I never insulted you, yet you are making every effort to be
disagreable and rude.  Is that where your (presumed by you)
experiential and educational superiority led you, or have you always
been so condecending?

> Which of the representations of null do you prefer?

I can't compare them, they have no value.

-- 
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support
rather than illumination." Andrew Lang

Marc C. Brooks
http://musingmarc.blogspot.com