{"id":72899,"date":"2017-09-21T16:25:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T16:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=72899"},"modified":"2017-10-09T15:42:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T15:42:22","slug":"conversations-gran-databases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/opinion\/editorials\/conversations-gran-databases\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations with Gran about Databases"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, what’s going on in your databases world this week, young man?<\/em> I paused, as always, a little unsure of what I was getting myself into. I’d been having these little “technical chats” with Gran ever since her ‘computer incident’, when a blue screen informing her of a “Fatal error: catastrophic failure<\/em>“, had thrown her into such a state of panic and confusion that she’d fled the room and locked the door.<\/p>\n

I thought it might help restore her confidence. Unwisely though, I’d strayed into explaining what I mainly did, databases, and now she wanted a weekly update. She feared for my safety, I think.<\/p>\n

I’d had some notable early success explaining things to her, mainly with the help of the Bible. Tables in a database were no different than the money changers’ accounting tables, famously overturned (John 2:13-16<\/em>). Also, I pointed out, warming to the theme, the “book, chapter and verse” reference that told us exactly what bit of the bible we meant was also used in databases, except we called it a Primary Key.<\/p>\n

However, there seemed only so far one could go with this, and generally, the conversations had been a minefield. She’d pick up phrases, misunderstand their meaning and generally get confused.<\/p>\n