Re: UUIDs (Was: Software implementing Gentech Genealogical Data Model)

On Wednesday 10 June 2009 19:52, Wes Groleau (groleau+news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
opined:

Bob Melson wrote:
of data elements which describe what's known about a "person" at a
particular point in time. Given the set of data elements is properly
selected, those strings may be assumed to be unique within their
universe.

I think that set of data elements would be the sequence of nucleotides
in the DNA, plus the birth order in the case of clones or identical
twins. Then again, if we all descended from Adam and Eve [1], it's
conceivable two people lucked into the same sequence. :-)

Well, that's ONE possibility.

Seriously, IF we could both come up with the right set of data elements
AND ensure that everyone enters them in the without error in value or
format, the resulting ID would not be of earth-shaking value--it would
be just as easy for the computer to compare the source data as to
generate the ID and compare that.

I started by questioning not only WHAT the uuids were but their utility, as
well. Looking at the phpGedView source code, I see that the process by
which their uuids are generated matches one of the RFC 4122 variants, in
that they use epochal time in their generation. As a result,
unfortunately, the uuids bear no relationship to the data thus tagged and
are, effectively, an arbitrarily assigned value. Seeing that, my thought
was, "why not see what generating an identifier based on some set/sub-set
of the individual data available might provide?" It would certainly
relate to the individual, but would it be of any more use than that
already available? I have to conclude that the uuids as they currently
exist and those generated according to my proposed scheme are pretty much
valueless, although I think an id based on my scheme might be a bit more
useful in certain circumstances.

The other problem has been, and continues to be, that folks have misread or
misinterpreted what I've said. Even granting I'm not the greatest
literary stylist in the world, I think I've been pretty clear about what
I've been proposing and in explaining how it might work and be applied.

[1] The same solution of amino acids, if you are of that persuasion.

--
Wes Groleau

Don't get even -- get odd!

Sorta-exhausted 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
.