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Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express
Graeme Williams writes "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express from Novice to Professional is in two parts, "Working with SQL Server Express" and "Working with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express". The first part of the book is quite a bit larger (368pp vs. 204pp), so the title, as long as it is, isn't all that accurate. How about, "An introduction to SQL Server 2005 Express, including desktop and web applications in Visual Basic"? The book asks to be judged against a high standard: Can it turn a SQL and Visual Basic novice into a professional? The first part of the book is an excellent introduction to SQL Server in its several manifestations, and essential for anyone who is new to SQL Server 2005 Express. The second part doesn't provide as much help for the complete beginner, but still provides a good introduction to developing database applications." Read the rest of Graeme's review.
Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications
author
Rick Dobson
pages
xxi + 596
publisher
Apress
rating
8
reviewer
Graeme Williams
ISBN
1-59059-523-8
summary
An excellent introduction to SQL Server 2005 Express and a
The first part of Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express, on SQL Server Express, covers a large amount of material. Starting with a basic introduction to SQL, the book builds in two directions, covering more complicated SQL as well as SQL Server Express administration. In 368 pages, you'd naturally expect a fair amount of information, but it's also thorough and well-organized. One test of how well an introductory book is organized is whether you can usefully keep it on your shelf to refer to later, and I think Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express passes that test very well. You can verify the breadth of topics covered by looking at the online table of contents and the author's web site for the book, which is detailed enough to be a very clear summary of what the book covers.
The generous amount of material downloadable from the web site includes all the SQL scripts from part one – these samples alone represent an excellent introduction to SQL (or T-SQL, as Microsoft insists on calling it). There's also a 60-page bonus chapter, not included in the book, on ASP .NET.
The explanation of SQL Server administration is a big bonus for the book, and it clearly lays out the difference between SQL Server 2005 and its smaller brother, the Express Edition, as well as the changes from SQL 2000. While I was reading this book, I had to do some simple database administration on a couple of SQL 2000 databases, one a production server, and the book gave me a very useful head start. If you found yourself upgrading from SQL Server Express to a larger and more complicated SQL Server configuration, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express wouldn't give you everything you needed to know, but it would provide a good introduction.
Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express was published in December 2005, after the release of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 Express but while SQL Server Management Studio Express was (and still is) only available as a "Community Technology Preview". I took the risk and installed it, and it seems fine, connecting both to a local instance of SQL Server 2005 Express and a remote SQL Server 2000.
It's inevitable in an introduction that some material be covered too hastily. For example, Dobson suggests that a database constraint could be used to ensure that a purchase amount is less than a particular dollar limit unless an approver name is also present in the database record. But that's a business rule that shouldn't be included in the database schema. At a minimum, the book might have mentioned the distinction. There's a good discussion of data types, which is somewhat weakened by not being prescriptive enough. Should I use the bit data type because they're small and will squeeze into tight spaces, or avoid them because of the unpacking overhead, if any? The book doesn't say.
There's one omission from the book that may trip you up when you try to run some of the Visual Basic examples, specifically code that attempts to attach a database file to the Server. The access privileges for the database server naturally depend on the user id it's running under, and the default installation uses a special Windows account which doesn't have access to your whole system. For running the examples, the simplest (and least secure) solution is to change the user id to your own account, which you can do using the SQL Server Configuration Manager, shown in Figure 1-4 on page 18. I guess the most secure solution is to create a new account whose privileges are limited to a specific directory, but I'm certainly not an expert in this area. Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express doesn't discuss it at all.
The second part of Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express, "Working with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express", begins with a superficial introduction to Visual Basic. The problem is that it won't be enough for people who are new to Visual Basic, and it's not necessary for people who are familiar with it. The examples are solid but not outstanding.
Example 5 in Chapter 9, "Introduction to Visual Basic Express and Windows Forms", provides a nice example of a landmine Microsoft has laid in our path: In a Windows application, Console.WriteLine() writes to the Output->Debug window, but Debug.WriteLine() writes to the Immediate window. The example would have been easier to follow if that gem had been explained. But like the rest of the book, there's a lot of useful information in the chapter. I guess my only quibble is that in using "Novice" in the title, the book promises more than it delivers, at least in this area. This isn't suitable for a beginner to Visual Basic.
Like many other books about Visual Basic Express, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express has a couple of chapters about building web sites using ASP .NET. It seems to me that Microsoft wants Visual Basic Express and SQL Server Express (both of which are free) to be gateway drugs to ASP .NET and IIS. The book repeats the canard that IIS is a free web server for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003, but that's not true. IIS is included in Windows XP Professional but not Windows XP Home. In any case, Microsoft would love to get you hooked on IIS.
The other problem with ASP .NET is that so much of the action is behind the curtain. So, any example is going to have a sequence of steps in the web page designer, and perhaps a small amount of code or HTML, followed by magic, followed a web page being generated. I have nothing against magic, but it means that any narrative or explanation of examples is going to jump from "what you do at design time" to "what happens at run time" with a greater or lesser gap in the middle. Here's an example (page 565):
The rest of part two deals with Visual Basic and ADO .NET, starting with a good introduction to the ADO .NET architecture As in the first part of the book, Dobson does a very good job of presenting a great deal of very useful information. ADO .NET includes two different APIs, an untyped API where column names and types can be determined at runtime by querying the database, and a strongly typed API constructed by the Visual Studio IDE at design time. The IDE reads column names and types from the database and builds an XML description it uses to build and type an API specific to each table. Dobson presents the more complicated untyped API first, which I think is the right approach, since it then makes clear what the IDE and runtime libraries are doing under the covers to manage the typed API.
The Visual Basic examples include connecting to both SQL Server and Access, parsing data out of a text file or Excel, handling concurrency errors, and a very thorough walk-through of the usual suspects: creating and deleting tables and inserting, updating and deleting rows, from a single table or multiple tables. The examples are great at making clear how ADO and related parts of .NET work, but they didn't strike me as brilliant code – not necessarily the sort of thing you want to keep to cut and paste into your next project.
In my opinion, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express is stronger in the area of SQL Server than it is for application development. If, like me, you're comfortable with Visual Basic but new to SQL Server, run to the bookstore – for you, this book is a 9. If you're familiar with SQL Server 2000 administration but looking to start implementing applications in the latest version of Visual Basic, check out the table of contents online. You'll find a lot to like, even if the book doesn't match your needs perfectly."
You can purchase Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The first part of Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express, on SQL Server Express, covers a large amount of material. Starting with a basic introduction to SQL, the book builds in two directions, covering more complicated SQL as well as SQL Server Express administration. In 368 pages, you'd naturally expect a fair amount of information, but it's also thorough and well-organized. One test of how well an introductory book is organized is whether you can usefully keep it on your shelf to refer to later, and I think Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express passes that test very well. You can verify the breadth of topics covered by looking at the online table of contents and the author's web site for the book, which is detailed enough to be a very clear summary of what the book covers.
The generous amount of material downloadable from the web site includes all the SQL scripts from part one – these samples alone represent an excellent introduction to SQL (or T-SQL, as Microsoft insists on calling it). There's also a 60-page bonus chapter, not included in the book, on ASP .NET.
The explanation of SQL Server administration is a big bonus for the book, and it clearly lays out the difference between SQL Server 2005 and its smaller brother, the Express Edition, as well as the changes from SQL 2000. While I was reading this book, I had to do some simple database administration on a couple of SQL 2000 databases, one a production server, and the book gave me a very useful head start. If you found yourself upgrading from SQL Server Express to a larger and more complicated SQL Server configuration, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express wouldn't give you everything you needed to know, but it would provide a good introduction.
Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express was published in December 2005, after the release of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 Express but while SQL Server Management Studio Express was (and still is) only available as a "Community Technology Preview". I took the risk and installed it, and it seems fine, connecting both to a local instance of SQL Server 2005 Express and a remote SQL Server 2000.
It's inevitable in an introduction that some material be covered too hastily. For example, Dobson suggests that a database constraint could be used to ensure that a purchase amount is less than a particular dollar limit unless an approver name is also present in the database record. But that's a business rule that shouldn't be included in the database schema. At a minimum, the book might have mentioned the distinction. There's a good discussion of data types, which is somewhat weakened by not being prescriptive enough. Should I use the bit data type because they're small and will squeeze into tight spaces, or avoid them because of the unpacking overhead, if any? The book doesn't say.
There's one omission from the book that may trip you up when you try to run some of the Visual Basic examples, specifically code that attempts to attach a database file to the Server. The access privileges for the database server naturally depend on the user id it's running under, and the default installation uses a special Windows account which doesn't have access to your whole system. For running the examples, the simplest (and least secure) solution is to change the user id to your own account, which you can do using the SQL Server Configuration Manager, shown in Figure 1-4 on page 18. I guess the most secure solution is to create a new account whose privileges are limited to a specific directory, but I'm certainly not an expert in this area. Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express doesn't discuss it at all.
The second part of Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express, "Working with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express", begins with a superficial introduction to Visual Basic. The problem is that it won't be enough for people who are new to Visual Basic, and it's not necessary for people who are familiar with it. The examples are solid but not outstanding.
Example 5 in Chapter 9, "Introduction to Visual Basic Express and Windows Forms", provides a nice example of a landmine Microsoft has laid in our path: In a Windows application, Console.WriteLine() writes to the Output->Debug window, but Debug.WriteLine() writes to the Immediate window. The example would have been easier to follow if that gem had been explained. But like the rest of the book, there's a lot of useful information in the chapter. I guess my only quibble is that in using "Novice" in the title, the book promises more than it delivers, at least in this area. This isn't suitable for a beginner to Visual Basic.
Like many other books about Visual Basic Express, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express has a couple of chapters about building web sites using ASP .NET. It seems to me that Microsoft wants Visual Basic Express and SQL Server Express (both of which are free) to be gateway drugs to ASP .NET and IIS. The book repeats the canard that IIS is a free web server for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003, but that's not true. IIS is included in Windows XP Professional but not Windows XP Home. In any case, Microsoft would love to get you hooked on IIS.
The other problem with ASP .NET is that so much of the action is behind the curtain. So, any example is going to have a sequence of steps in the web page designer, and perhaps a small amount of code or HTML, followed by magic, followed a web page being generated. I have nothing against magic, but it means that any narrative or explanation of examples is going to jump from "what you do at design time" to "what happens at run time" with a greater or lesser gap in the middle. Here's an example (page 565):
Normally, a False setting for the AutoPostBack property of a server-based control, such as TextBox1, does not let the control operate automatically after you commit a value to it. However, a special setting on a Define Parameters wizard screen causes TextBox1 to return its value to the server immediately after a user presses the Enter key on the keyboard. The Define Parameters wizard screen is one of series that you can pass through when you reconfigure a data source with a wizard.Dobson actually does a great job of navigating this particular example, in the sense that he makes it clear what incantations will produce the desired effect – submitting a single value to the server for use in a database query(!).
The rest of part two deals with Visual Basic and ADO .NET, starting with a good introduction to the ADO .NET architecture As in the first part of the book, Dobson does a very good job of presenting a great deal of very useful information. ADO .NET includes two different APIs, an untyped API where column names and types can be determined at runtime by querying the database, and a strongly typed API constructed by the Visual Studio IDE at design time. The IDE reads column names and types from the database and builds an XML description it uses to build and type an API specific to each table. Dobson presents the more complicated untyped API first, which I think is the right approach, since it then makes clear what the IDE and runtime libraries are doing under the covers to manage the typed API.
The Visual Basic examples include connecting to both SQL Server and Access, parsing data out of a text file or Excel, handling concurrency errors, and a very thorough walk-through of the usual suspects: creating and deleting tables and inserting, updating and deleting rows, from a single table or multiple tables. The examples are great at making clear how ADO and related parts of .NET work, but they didn't strike me as brilliant code – not necessarily the sort of thing you want to keep to cut and paste into your next project.
In my opinion, Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express is stronger in the area of SQL Server than it is for application development. If, like me, you're comfortable with Visual Basic but new to SQL Server, run to the bookstore – for you, this book is a 9. If you're familiar with SQL Server 2000 administration but looking to start implementing applications in the latest version of Visual Basic, check out the table of contents online. You'll find a lot to like, even if the book doesn't match your needs perfectly."
You can purchase Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
if it turns out to be anything like the MSDE2000 then it is nothing more than a nightmare waiting to happen.. and no one should write a book about how to use it.
on the other hand>>
another slashdot book review with score 8... nothing to see here
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Come on, this is slashdot. Anything Microsoft will get flamed -- let the flame wars begin.
Me, I'd rather end SQL Server
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
I actually plan on migrating all my apps to SQL Server Express when they include all the functionality of the real version and then port it to Linux.
Structured Query Language (SQL), pronounced "sequel", is a language that provides an interface to relational database systems. It was developed by IBM in the 1970s for use in System R. SQL is a de facto standard, as well as an ISO and ANSI standard.
I had to re-read that sentence three or four times before I realized that
was indeed the title of the book in question.Afterwards, the fact that it consists of two parts, namely
"Working with SQL Server Express" and
"Working with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express"
came as little surprise...
The title is reminiscent of the technique of putting every programming language, OS, and application you've used since third grade into one's resume, just to make sure that HR department gets a "hit" on your resume when they search the internal database for prospects.
Has the field of technical literature become so saturated that publishers/editors (probably more so than authors) are resorting to spamming their own book titles with buzzwords and acronyms... in order to show up better on Amazon search queries?
The book asks to be judged against a high standard: Can it turn a SQL and Visual Basic novice into a professional?
FTA:
I guess my only quibble is that in using "Novice" in the title, the book promises more than it delivers, at least in this area. This isn't suitable for a beginner to Visual Basic.
The answer is NO. Please move along.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"if it turns out to be anything like the MSDE2000 then it is nothing more than a nightmare waiting to happen.. and no one should write a book about how to use it."
That's the spirit. Up next the latest Linux distro is like the very first Slackware. Now aren't you glad you didn't have to sit through my review?
How "express" could it be if it requires a book in two parts to learn how to do it?
--
make install -not war
This comes as I was actually planning on (tonight maybe?) putting together a small database app in C# for my fiancee. I want to keep up / improve my .NET 2005 skills, but my experience is primarily on client/server setups where the SQL Server 2000 is on a dedicated server. I was aiming to use SQL 2005 Express for the database part of the app. Does SQL Server 2005 Express give you sort of a glorified Access database? I want a database tied to the application, but I don't want to have to install the application AND a database instance - does the Express edition handle including the database with the app? I'm hoping maybe it creates the database file, and then just includes that in the application directory, and accesses it via some sort of database file connection?
Either way, I doubt I'll look to getting this book - I feel pretty confident in SQL 2000, and am hoping there's enough online docs to get me through a basic setup. Plus, once the db stuff is setup, I'll just need to focus on the application itself, which it doesn't sound like this book really covers.
Thank you for your little bit of history, but I think the parent was referring to the pronunciation of MySQL, not SQL in general. I believe Wikipedia might be able to give some insight on how to pronounce it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysql
Also from other sites I've read, I think the norm is My-S-Q-L.
Microsoft developer network at htt:\\msdn.microsoft.com IMHO its probably more information than most developers might need to accomplish a given task or learn about 2k5 MS technology. Don't sleep, msdn has some excellent content and the coverage of the new SQL 2005 implementation is fairly extensive. Most books I buy collect dust after just a few weeks.......
K
Save yourself $14.80 by buying the book here: Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express. And if you use the "secret" A9.com discount, you can save an extra 1.57%!
Any specifics on the nightmare? We use MSDE all over the place and it works great, provided your sysadmins aren't the sort who install server grade database engines with network access enabled and root passwords blank.
If you are keen on developing database-centric Web applications, you may want to try the free Oracle 10g Express Edition with Application Express. Application Express (formerly known as HTML DB) is a RAD platform tightly integrated with the database.
e /xe/index.html
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/databas
The other problem with ASP .NET is that so much of the action is behind the curtain
Well, from what I gather, Ruby on Rails hides database access pretty thoroughly as well. WebDev systems exist for the purpose of that very concept... making standard operations into black boxes.
I've been using the new SQL Express in a project over the last several months. It's quite nice for a free, distributable DB, and the Management Studio download has been much nicer than the old 2000 version (or the Postgres Admin tool I used before this). A book like this would have been handy, as there aren't a lot of comprehensive resources on the web for Express.
I feel a 400 post platform diatribe coming up...
Can it turn SQL and Visual Basic novice into pro?
Dear god I hope not. Visual Basic Professional is the single biggest contradiction in terms I've ever seen.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
No, it has a short "I" sound. Vowels have short ("I" as in "chin") and long ("I" as in "ice") sounds. Consonants such as "C" and "G" have soft ("city", "giraffe") and hard ("cup", "gap") sounds. Since we're being pedantic and all ;)
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
"...or actually getting your software upgraded more often then once every 5 years."
Is that anything like a textbook upgrade?
IMHO, the Microsoft document dump is what really keeps them afloat these days, as developers are not going to find this kind of support anywhere else, and while its cool, I think it getting over done to the point where is is hard to differentiate between somebody with SOME knowledge who wants to sell a book, and those versions that truly cause large numbers of admins and developers to become better at what they do.
I mean, who didnt (and maybe still does) have a red wall lined with WROX trash that didnt really cause a lot of learning to occur, but made people feel smart just for having all those dead trees in their bookcases?
We dont need more books, we need better books with perfect grammar and code samples that work the FIRST TIME. Nothing is more frustrating when you are trying to learn something than to have to constantly reference the errors file from the web site, or debug code from someone who is getting paid to teach YOU something.
But then, maybe thats just me?
"The other problem with ASP .NET is that so much of the action is behind the curtain."
They've alienated their Basic programmer base by forcing them to relearn the language.. AGAIN. None of the old asp pages can be copied and pasted into aspx. Is it really necessary to create registry keys for everything, such as form controls? This is why they're giving Visual Basic Express out for free.
Microsoft is forcing all electronic commerce to involve their click and drag methodology. Sure, it's got bells and whistles, but try to upgrade, migrate, or automate that.
Linus == Linux
It all depend how you say Linus. If Finnish is your native tongue, they are both said with a "short 'I'". If however, your native tongue is English, you would say them both with a long "I".
The Peanuts character's name is Linus with a long "I" like lice. Linux...
Kind of OT, but from their site:
The official way to pronounce "MySQL" is "My Ess Que Ell" (not "my sequel"), but we don't mind if you pronounce it as "my sequel" or in some other localized way.
(Near the bottom)
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
Personaly i have seen way to many software vendors that use it as their back end when distrbuting software and do not inform people that they need to install patchs for the MSDE or they don't bother to rereleast the patchs them selfs..
doesn't any one remember slammer? and the fact that most of the infections were out there (and still out there) are MSDE installs that people don't know they have
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
It's easier to say and remember. And MySQL is a pig anyway, so...
Makes nearly any book an improvement!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
erm... when did SQL Server get object oriented?
/>
T-SQL would accept is thusly:
SELECT * FROM books WHERE LEN(title) > 142
Besides, oo would dictate is as title.length
<SQLNazi="Yes"
Isaiah 43:19 (NCV)
Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don't you see it?
"Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express from Novice to Professional"
Is the name of the application "Beginning SQL Server" ? I've heard of my SQL and ms sql and postgresql but not beggining sql.....
http://www.sqlonrails.com/
"so the title, as long as it is, isn't all that accurate"
.NET 2003"
.NET 2003, so I know that it is in fact referring to a piece of software -- as opposed to simply saying "Visual C#" which would be referring to a programming language. So when I started reading this book and realized that the information in the book was only about the language Visual C#, using a no-longer-available free Microsoft tool called Web Matrix and NOT Visual C# .NET 2003, I was a little pissed!
.NET 2003 IN THE FREAKIN' TITLE!
It's a far sight better than one of the most recent computer books that I bought. Wrox Press' "ASP.NET 1.1 with Visual C#
Now, I happened to have owned a copy of Visual C#
I emailed the publisher and all they could tell me was "It mentions Web Matrix in a bullet point on the back cover, so we think that's clear enough."
Sorry, buddy, but you mention
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Visual BASIC.NET and ASP.NET are free at Wikibooks. No SQL Server Express version yet, but there is a Wikibook on SQL which novices can read. I am sure one can read it and adapt it to SQL Server.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/Default.aspx?tabindex =0&tabid=1
It is the precursor to Web Developer
This is an exerpt from my competing book:
a ult.mspx
"Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express. You most likely installed this product as part of Visual Studio 2005. Your next step is to freak out and get a version that costs money, because the express edition lacks the most basic administration tool that you're used to using: the query analyzer. Yes, that's right you have no tool to run arbitrary SQL. And since you're a developer, you'll probably be trying to load a database backup that somebody else gave you as your first step. You can either create an empty database, then run sql against that to create a new database, OR go here and download SQL Server Management Studio Express to make useful a product that is otherwise an aggrandized version of Access."
You can also get to the download from the SQL Server Express Homepage:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/def
I'd recommend if you're going to work on Windows Dot-Net choose C# not Visual Basic. Visual Basic takes every well known programming concept that's been around for years and gives it a different name. You'd have difficulty communicating with someone trained in object orientated design or UML or any C-like language like C++ or Java. I wonder if this is to make Visual Basic like another Microsoft Walled Garden with high cost of migration.
On the other hand, if you're coming from Visual Basic 6 use C# anyway. Best have the big change in syntax so you're not tempted to fall back to old ideas. Dot-Net is conceptually very different to Visual Basic. I've seen C programmers write Java applications in one class with lots of static methods. I've seen VB programmers write Dot-Net that looks like spaghetti after a few hours with a champion boy-scout knotting expert.
If you're not stuck on Microsoft, consider something like Java or Python. As hinted in the review Dot-Net has a lot of "magic" and that can make things quite hard when it comes to working out why something isn't working. For anything non-trivial the Visual Studio designer tools lose their benefit, and the result can be a pain to maintain.
When I see the word "beginning" I think of the WROX press (red cover) books, but it seems all the "beginning" books reviews on /. are the yellow-and-black cover ones.
Can you please mention the publisher in future titles?
Also, are you getting a payoff from these guys? Do you write for them?
Andy Out!
This is news for nerds?. Whish I gave a fuck
I'm a product manager for a suite of web applications. Personally, I'm a Ruby on Rails guy. Professionally, all of my developers are Visual Studio people--they're moving to ASP.NET from ISAPI. I'll tell you one key difference with ASP.NET vs. Ruby on Rails. It follows the principle of most surprise.
ASP.NET looks like someone took a look at web dev and said, "how can we make this less web-like" whereas Ruby on Rails looks at the web and says, "how can we make this cleaner without changing it." Ruby on Rails spits out predictable, high quality markup. ASP.NET appends dynamically generated values to your HTML id attributes, significantly complicating otherwise straightforward client-side scripting.
Would you rather peek behind the curtain and see an attractive woman undressing herself or a sweaty, naked fat guy picking his nose?
No offense to sweaty, naked fat guys with an abundance of boogies.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
"sequel" is old skool but accurate. The only reason we call it sql and not sequel (Structured English QUEry Language) is because of a trademark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sql) issue.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
Datebases...
Legacy will pick DB2.
Nouvre rich will pick Oracle.
Those who rely on Windows will chose SQL2005.
Who will win the windows rich environment?
Um, pronounced with local dialect,
Linus = Lee Noose
Linux = Linn Ucks
NEITHER one of them uses a long i (such as in ice), which is how both are often pronounced.
Not even close to "=="
SQL Server Express IMO is really not a database that any serious company should be looking at. If you really need a free database then like most people on this site would agree, MySQL is a good alternative.
Now we all know that SSE has upper limits to it and the obvious reason MS would do this is to upsell you to the full SQL Server. Most people will logically think that those limits are fine based on their application. I really don't think that is the problem with SSE. The real problem is that MS constantly changes what you can and can not do with SSE from version to version. For example, with MSDE (the previous version of SSE), you were able to replicate to a central MSDE database. Now with SSE, you are no longer able to do that. You have to replicate to an expensive SQL Server database (and purchase a Client Access License). There are a number of other fundamental changes that MS made to SSE from the previous version that could have a huge impact on user applications.
My fear with using SSE would not be the upper limits but what MS will do with the next version that would limit my application or require me to upgrade to a more expensive database.
As a good friend said to me once "Free is not cheap enough".
Buyer Beware!!!
Adventure City Tours
That's because the people who make MySQL are idiots. If they can't correctly pronounce the name of the language used to interact with their software, how can we expect them to even know what their software is supposed to do?
I don't know about anyone else (see MSDE comments above) but the on-line help with VB.NET is virtually unreadable.
.NET's sucks hard. I don't know if I'd call
VS6's help all that wonderful, but it at least made finding
what you want relatively straightforward.
Whatever asshat gave this a troll-mod has never used both development environments. No lie -
My workplace has just moved to 2005, so ask this again in a year... But at least for now, the parent describes reality.
Of course, I have NO idea what this has to do with SQL Deskto... Sorry, they called it "Express" this time around. And on that topic, you only need to know one thing - How to disable the MSSQL service. No joke - Desktop users should NOT have an SQL server running. In keeping with standard Microsoft fare, it takes a high-end machine and makes it run like a dog with three legs.