Len,

>Walter has made the big mistake of putting across a different point of view to one or more of them & is currently suffering the consequences.

Well, I knew this was going to happen, and I do suffer from the consequences with pride, which i knew at forehand.

>It seems that a lot of his opponents have said that they have certain guidelines which they will always work to, unless there are overriding circumstances - which is not that much different to Walter's view.

I've brought up this issue many times before, and I never have got the feeling that anyone else addmited that there are circumstances where natural/intelligent keys are better. In this thread for the first time I noticed the "best practise" strategy applied here. From this I do conclude that its recognized there are advantages/disadvantages on both sides and that which one to use depends on which is best in the eyes of the developer. This is totally different from the viewpoint "always to use surrogate keys (for the sake of consistency)".

I think I've made point, and am quite satisfied with the outcome.

Walter,