Taxaonomic database structure

[John McNeill]

Richard H. Zander replied to Jim Bennet as follows:

>A relational database manager requires a single field to related two
>files. The complete latin name works well this way. Some people like
>to type the specific epithet in separately. This requires generating
>a key field from two fields through programming, another level of
>complexity.  Fancy database managers written for biological uses do
>this, but you should type in the whole name for the key field if you
>are a non-programmer working with a business data manager.

I had earlier noted that, nomenclaturally, three name fields were
needed for organisms falling under the botanical or bacteriological
codes and two name fields for those under the zoological code.  This
was, of course, predicated on the data base being a taxonomic one, in
which synonyms and their relationship to accepted names ("correct" in
botspeak; "valid" in zoospeak) at various ranks were to be
accommodated.

John McNeill

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  John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum,
  100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
  Tel. and fax # 416-586-5744  e-mail: johnm at rom.on.ca
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