I guess the question is: What's the alternative to defining models? Just passing around DB cursors directly or maybe pulling the results out of a cursor and storing them in a dynamic collection?
I don't disagree that models are pointless if they're not doing anything other than aping the DB. Why waste your time creating another layer of required translation if it doesn't buy you anything?
With that said, I do think there are some benefits to using statically typed models in languages line C# with larger codebases. It seems like it makes it easier to refactor the application code.
As somebody who loves databases, I think the real issue that folks are meaning to critique isn’t actually using a “model.”
It’s using an ActiveRecord-style ORM (or any ORM) without grokking what lies beneath.
A database layer IS a model. It’s just not a class or an object.
ActiveRecord is a really nice trick when it works … but it can create some really performance-killing side effects.
Ruby’s Datawrapper ORM and its siblings in other languages requires understanding both sides (the object system and RDBMS) but can let you get your class/object semantics to play nicely with your database.
And just passing around database connections and arrays of hashes can get you awfully far.
But, if you want to not think about the database layer, ActiveRecord-style ORMs are a real win for developer ergonomics.
And that’s part of the win of Rails/Django/etc. You can live in a single mental model (classes/objects with references to each other) and ignore the database layer.
Except when you can’t.
One reason (not a criticism) that NoSQL can be such a win is that the semantics are closer to class/object semantics. So you’re not trying to manipulate data with an abstraction that doesn’t quite fit.
But most of our projects aren’t Twitter or FaceBook or Google or anything else functioning at galactic scale.
I don't disagree that models are pointless if they're not doing anything other than aping the DB. Why waste your time creating another layer of required translation if it doesn't buy you anything?
With that said, I do think there are some benefits to using statically typed models in languages line C# with larger codebases. It seems like it makes it easier to refactor the application code.