An instance of a popular CMS is used for a website. While analyzing I'm coming across a a table in it's MySQL database where a column called "deleted" is defined as such:
deleted` tinyint(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 COMMENT 'A boolean indicating whether this data item has been deleted‘
🤦♂️
There should be a license allowing allowed to write software used by someone else. Like with drivers licenses it needs a points system for violations and license revocation. #WebDevelopment#PHP#MYSQL#SQL
@OldGrumpyBitWrangler I have theories as to which CMS you're talking about... But I'll ask, what would you do instead? Isn't that the only way to do a boolean flag in MySQL, or have they fixed that more recently?
@Crell What I would do? Use PostgresSQL. According to documentation MariaDB has BOOLEAN as an alias for TINYINT(1). MySQL might as well, but their documentation is as crappy as ever.
@Crell it's both. Well actually more than that. I object the use of MySQL for many reasons, including the sloppy way it's been developed over its lifetime, the BOOLEAN type being a quiet minor example of that. I also object MySQL b/c said sloppyness encourages bad practices with many, less experienced developers and normalizes that. Which leads to my 3rd objection: The definition of the ‚deleted' column by the CMS/module developers. TINYINT(4) for a boolean that by definition is either 0 or 1.
@OldGrumpyBitWrangler In fairness, 95% of developers in my experience don't know what SQL is, other than "that thing backing my over-engineered ORM." The vast majority of implementations use SQL as a glorified card catalog or CSV file with indexes, for hydrating overly complex objects in the language of choice.
That's hardly specific to one ORM, language, or database.
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