Re: ID generation

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:29:13 -0400

Message-ID:

<P7KdnTEqSpP0fG_anZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d@comcast.com>

David Segall wrote:

I understand the second and third sentence although I don't see why a
database generated token is inferior to Wayne's program generated one.
The other sentences seem to have conflicting statements. How can
arbitrary data have meaning in the problem domain? In what way is
Wayne's token "domain-meaningful"?

If you take the domain as user confirmation, then the use of secret tokens to
ensure that you got the response from the correct individual is very much part
of the domain of discourse.

You can generate such tokens in a database. However, this is a different use
case from using auto-generated primary keys as part of a physical database
implementation. I realize now that the use case I was addressing was not the
actual one under discussion in this thread. The difference is externality -
Wayne's tokens are designed for external, domain-specific use. DBMS
auto-generated physical keys are not. They share details of implementation
but they are different in purpose.

Given that, I retract my original comment against auto-generated keys as not
germane to this particular use case. Some sort of encrypted token would be
useful, assuming the usual safeguards against man-in-the-middle attacks.

--
Lew