Database design what are your thoughts
Code generators are great! Code generators are evil!

10-15 years ago, I would have said that having a code generator for quickly creating the boiler plate code for database driven applications would have been a great gift to mankind.

5-10 years ago, I would have said code generator sucks, they generate too much duplicate code and that having a data-driven user interface (where the fields on the screen, validation, etc is driven by meta-data in a database instead of coding the screens one by one) would have been a great gift to mankind that supplanted the code generators.

Today I would say - write each screen individually. Use existing framework that wire fields and model objects and possibly ORM when doing simple CRUD. But do design each screen to the exact purpose of the screen. Application screens that mirror a RDMS table too much is only good for managing lookup tables. Don't annoy the user with geeky interface that are designed against a computer storage model (RDMS)... make a screen that has only what they need. That may mean that it will save to multiple tables, etc. Who cares. The user isn't a database.

So my thought? Don't waste your time making a code generator.