Data Base Cathedrals

The database professional cannot stop after building a normalized, well-structured database system but must take an interest in the interior as well. This interest must be on 3 levels: 1. format rules, 2. referential integrity, and 3. content. The emerging database technology seems to be blurring the line between the applications programmer and the database support professional. As the data definition languages add new features, they usurp many of the prerogatives that used to be the exclusive domain of applications developers. Coding rules that used to be expressed in application code are moving into the data definition languages. Concern about user access is becoming a critical part of the database administrator's job. In almost every respect, the requirements of the database administrator's job are drifting away from the purely technical toward a closer affiliation with traditional applications development.