>
>I was hoping you could expand upon your post as to any particular techniques
>that you have built into your application design, or database architecture
>that has allowed you to achieve this 'no DBA required' status in your
>software? It would be of great value to me, and I also assume others on
>this list.
>
>Thanks,
>Myles

Well, I am a South African, and I have to write for computer - illiterate
users, and BAD power (electrical power).

I don't write tremendously complicated or complex systems (except for that
really big one that is still running). I write in Delphi, and keep my
transactions as short as possible. There is no inbuilt referential
integrity - the user can only choose what is in the database, and I keep
manual inputs to an absolute minimum.

I try to use Stored Procedures as much as possible. In Delphi terms, NO
TTable components. As far as possible, all inserts, updates, and deletes
are by stored procedures, and each happens within its own discrete
transaction. I try to keep everything as "atomic" as possible.

Every table always has a primary key ("RECORDNO") which is always generated
by a generator on insert. It is strictly kept apart from the data in each
record, and has nothing to do with the data as data. It is always an
integer. As far as possible, all joins are done on this field.

Forced writes is always on. Every time my applications start up, they check
to see of FW is on, and if not, they turn it on.

And that's about it.

My code isn't very elegant, I think. By by god, it works. :-)

You are welcome to email me directly.

Regards

Tim