Comment by hot_gril
2 months ago
If the Excel spreadsheet has formulas in it, it's software. If you're just talking about the data in the sheet, i.e. what you'd get exporting it as a CSV, then it's not.
Col types, unique/FK/PK constraints, default values, and computed cols define the steps for handling row inserts/updates/deletes. Even adding a uniqueness constraint to an already-unique col will change how the code interacts with it, specifically how it deals with concurrency/locking. If they said it has to be an imperative programming language, then it's not that.
If they said the schema isn't source code then ok, but I still think it is.
I assure you that Excel spreadsheets with formulas in them are FOIA-able in Illinois. Since we can take that as axiomatic, I think we can put "schemas are software" to bed.
SQL schemas aren't Excel spreadsheets.
That's fascinating, but you just claimed Excel spreadsheets were "software" in the sense of the Illinois FOIA statute definition, and they are not. QED.
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