Re: Source Control for DB objects
- From: Jeremy Schneider <jeremy.schneider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Taylor, Chris David" <ChrisDavid.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 10:04:31 -0500
Well there are some good reasons that almost no serious developer in the
world uses CVS anymore... (and hasn't for years.) At one big org where I've
worked, business critical scripts were just copied between directories for
change control. The upshot is that there's one guy who owns the scripts,
most others are afraid to touch them, and this poor guy never gets a
vacation and I don't know what they'll do when he eventually retires. Sure,
the code isn't "broke" in a technical sense... I mean it works. Backups and
clones and monitoring and a hundred other things get done. But these
particular groups aren't evaluating their practices and processes at all.
You can't change practices overnight, but what worries me is the reluctance
to even evaluate them and consider upgrading processes just we upgrade
software when improvements become available.
You could say it's a difference between "fire-fighting" mentality (I only
look at something which is on fire) and a "health" mentality (I want my
environment to be reasonably healthy). Granted, it's just as easy to
over-emphasize health to the point of constantly changing things - and in
fact you'll never have a *perfect* environment or practices. This is what
leads DBAs to Compulsive-Tuning-Disorder. And at smaller orgs I more often
see that tendancy. But at bigger places, I feel like I more often see an
outright reluctance to evaluate practices and consider improvements. And
CVS - while it does work for super-basic stuff - is really, really old. I
love the newer tools because there are so many amazing features.
IMHO, using CVS is like running all your apps on Oracle 7. FWIW, the Java
people always say "it doesn't matter as long as I can store my objects in
this bit-bucket." The DBA people say "but 11g is SO MUCH better for both
you and me!!" Well this conversation about source control is the same, but
in reverse. DBA people are saying "it doesn't matter as long as my backup
works." I'm saying "but modern source control systems are SO MUCH better
for both users and admins!!" Perhaps this whole conversation is another
artifact of the pronounced silo phenomenon in technology fields.
-Jeremy
PS - i have tested as both ENFJ and INTJ at various times... both
legitimate, my personality has just shifted a little over time. :)
On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Taylor, Chris David <
ChrisDavid.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Regarding your soap-box, this is a matter of personality types I think. (
> http://www.personalitypage.com/html/portraits.html)****
>
> ** **
>
> Regarding “if it’s not broke, then don’t fix it” the question is: ...
>
> ** **
>
> Just some thoughts to consider.****
>
> ** **
>
> *Chris Taylor*****
>
> *Sr. Oracle DBA*****
>
>
--
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Jeremy Schneider
Chicago
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