Can good Object Orientated Design be formalised as good relational database design has been?

Question

In the database world, we have normalisation. You can start with a design, crank the steps and end up with a normal form of the database. This is done on the basis of the

Answer 1

Not only do I fully agree with Paul, but I will go a step further.

Models are just that - only models. The Normalization models used by Relational Databases are only one approach to storing and managing data. In fact, note that while RDBMS's are common for Data Manipulation operations (the standard CRUD), we have now evolved the DataWarehouse for consolidation, analysis, and reporting. And it most definitely does NOT adhere to the normalization models found in DML land.

Now we also have Google with their BigTable architecture, and Apache with Hadoop. These newer modeling systems reflect a change in the landscape, driven by the idea of the DISTRIBUTED database. Normalization need not apply for this club either.

We can apply a successful model ony to the point at which it becomes not-so-successful, or is supplanted by an model which better suits the needs of the designer. Note the many ways we humans have modelled our universe through physics/Astronomy what have you. Modelling attmpts to describe a system in discreet terms, but as the system, or the needs of the system change, so must the model.

OOP is and has been a very, very successfulk way to model computer applications. However, the needs of the application designer are different from thos eof Database designers. MOST of the time, there is a point at which the designer of an application must consider that his program will be interacted with by humans. Unlike the database designer, whose work will (mostly) be expected to interact with other code, the programmer's job is to take the machine and make it accessible to a much more random human-being. This art does not map quite so well to such standards like normalization.

All that said, n-tier, MVC, MVVC, and other paradims DO establish some guidelines. But in the end, the problem-space of application design is usually not as easy to fit into such discrete modelling steps as a relational databse.

Wow. Apologies for the length. If this is a breach of ettiquette here, do let me know . . .