Rails - Jan 2006 - Database column conventions

I''ve got a database with about 25 tables and growing.  I was wondering 
what conventions people use with rails for the columns regarding NOT 
NULL and DEFAULT values.

I realize this depends a lot on the data being stored, but after 
entering dozens of columns into the database, you have to come up with 
your ''default'' case, right?

Generally, I just do NOT NULL DEFAULT ''0'' (for ints, floats,
and so on)
or NOT NULL DEFAULT '''' (for text, varchar).  Having the NOT
NULL, I
would think makes coding a bit easier since you don''t have to test for 
nil?, right?

So I''m curious -- what''s your ''default''
column look like and why?

   Jake

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