> Does situation change if you commit transaction after tha last

ALTER and

> before the UPDATE?

I haven't tried that yet, but if it helps anything I'll give it a go
if I have time

This isn't something that hinders my work really, I was just wondering
if the error means me having a non-consistent db (like somehow two
identical primary keys have gotten in unnoticed), or it just means I
have to commit after altering a table and before setting the new
fields values.

Cheers,
John