No, I'm not asking about how I'm supposed to play the game. So before people call me a noob or a dumbass. Read what I have to say.

Considering that FF7's materia system allows almost complete customization of all the characters, which kinds of materia do you normally assign to certain party members, and what roles do you normally assign them?

Me, I like to give the cover materia, a restore materia, and a barrier materia to Cloud, that way he can sort of serve as a paladin type character, in which he can defend party members, and use buffs and healing to lighten the load of the main healer of the group if necessary.
Spoiler:
Kind of like Cecil from Final Fantasy IV


For characters who are more physical based than other characters, such as Barret, I give him little to no materia so he can make the best of his physical abilities. As equiping materia lowers physical attack and defense.

Aeris/Aerith, I usually give her restore and most if not all the summon materia I have with me.

For Red XIII, I kind of see him as a red mage type of character in which he can basically handle any job at the minimum standards. So I usually give him most of the magic (both healing and offensive based) materia. At least until he gets his ultimate weapon.

These are a few examples. So I'd like to know, how did you guys handle your characters? What materia did you usually give each and what jobs do they normally handle?