[Arwill]

This is the consequence of the chosen programming language not being adapted to work with a relational database. The language is made to work with objects, and the access to DB is clumsy, trough library functions, which are deeply encapsulated, and the language and the DB are two different worlds. In SAP's ABAP language relational database access is integrated into the language. In SAP, when you create a database table, the structure of that table will be automatically available to any program as a structure datatype. So if you change a table definition, you will also change the data type used by the programs. Doing table changes is supported by a database tool that will automatically copy records from the old table to the new one if necessary. Its easy to find all references to a DB table, and recompile the sources. Its actually done automatically when both program and DB structure changes are deployed. Whatever change the developer does in the development system, that change will be automatically adjusted in the productive system on deployment. This makes any table structure change pretty easy, the development environment takes care of that. Wherever SAP applications use blobs to store data (for example HR payroll), those are the worst to develop with. Doing a non-simple change on a TB big table would surely cause disruption in a SAP system too, but other techniques are available for those cases.