UUIDs (Was: Software implementing Gentech Genealogical Data Model)

To relabel the discussion ...

Let me first state what should be obvious from my comments in the previous
exchanges: I know next to nothing about UUIDs or about the Gentech data
model that was being discussed.

But, back to what I've been saying, the concept of universally unique IDs
implies such an id is valid for the same entity, whatever that entity is,
everywhere that entity is found - in multiple databases on _my_ machine,
on Alice's machine, clear through to Zeke's machine. Understood that
that's based strictly on the meanings of the words universal and unique.
If there's some other definition of universally unique, with a lesser
meaning - and clearly there must be else we wouldn't be having this
discussion, flailing at one another with our slap sticks - then universal
and unique no longer have their original meanings. It just can't be both
ways.

Now, granting my understanding is deficient, would somebody please define
just what IS meant by the phrase universally unique id? And, if it
doesn't mean a number uniquely identifying an entity wherever it might be
found, just how it is both universal and unique in that case. As well, if
the ids are not universal and unique, how are they of any more use than,
say, the LDS' AFNs or, even, the "I" and "F" and other index numbers
currently in use in gedcoms?

I really am not trying to be contentious - or, at least, not very much. I
am, though, troubled by what appears to me to be a contradiction of terms.

Stubborn Ol' Bob

--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big
enough to take away everything you have. Thomas Jefferson
.