Rails - Jul 2005 - has_values?

hello all,

I''m looking for what I would call has_values.  I have an object that,
basically, "has_many :features" but I want a "feature" to be
just a
string, nothing more.  In implementing this list of strings using
has_many, the work/steps required feel excessive.  Creating a model
class for this seems excessive.

here''s what I''m thinking:

class Model < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_values :features
end

the table containing the features would have a foreign key column (to
the model table), but wouldn''t have it''s own id primary key. 
the
primary key would be a composite key on (model_id, value_column).

for example, my features table would look like:

create table model_features (
  model_id int references models,
  value varchar not null,
  primary key (model_id, value)
);

on Model.save, the rows in model_features corresponding to the
model_id would all be deleted and then the current values in the
features array would be inserted to the table.

any suggestions on how to handle this?  is there something I''m missing
in rails?

Thanks,
Dave