Chris Date surprised me by writing some more on the topic: http://www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/1409199.htm x I actually found his follow-up here more enlightening than his first round of thoughts. It's a good, thought-provoking read. Best regards, Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxx Join the Oracle-article list and receive one article on Oracle technologies per month by email. To join, visit http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/oracle-article, or send email to Oracle-article-request@xxxxxxxxxxx and include the word "subscribe" in either the subject or body. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l