well yes, it's fine to query the data dictionary. i have written tools some years ago that did generate c struct headers according to the tables of a database in order to use them along with embedded sql. visual studio's wizard for example creates derived CRecordset classes with data taken from the data dictionary with all the fields as data members of the class. of course this is static stuff, if your tables change, you must recreate your classes. i prefer to use an OODBMS these days, so you can forget about the 40% of your code which is just for mapping.

cheers, Peter