[Twisted-Python] coding standard: plurals for database table names

[Steve Waterbury]

On Sun, 2003-04-06 at 13:53, Clark C. Evans wrote:
> I noticed  in the Twisted Coding Standard that...
> 
>    "Database tables shall be named with plural nouns"
> 
> I'd like to question this standard for several reasons:
> [ some trimming for brevity ]
> 
>   3. It is helpful to name foreign key columns as the
>      same name as the table that they are coming from.

What if you have more than one foreign key to the same 
table?  A very simple example (from my app ;^):  the 
attributes "owner", "creator", and "modifier" all point 
to the "persons" table.  As a rule of thumb, it's usually 
best to name the foreign key column after the role that 
the foreign key entity plays in the referring table.

>   5. While there are astechic reasons for this (above)
>      the resons become all the more important when 
>      you want to build automatic tools for searching 
>      over schemata, etc.  In this case, using plurals
>      only adds one extra (unnecessary) step in the
>      automated translation of plural table names to 
>      singluar column and or class names.

I didn't think it was all that difficult.  I can send you
the O-R mapping I use, if you like.

> In short, I'd recommend singluar nouns, with M-M
> link tables as one__two where one and two are 
> tables being linked to.

One could reasonably argue that it is not important to have 
a table-naming rule in the coding standard.  I don't really 
care either way, but I happen to like using plural names for 
tables, and I'll use it regardless of what the Twisted coding std 
says anyhow, because I use my own O-R mapping instead of t.e.row 
(mine is different from t.e.row in many ways, but it does map plural 
table names to singular object names ;^).

Cheers,
- Steve.