Re: SQL vs V5R1 and service woes

We have an accounting package.  They added new date fields for the Y2K
situation.  But, they kept their old dates.  All of the existing logical
files did not change.  They added new logical files to use the new fields.
This way you could put on their release, and, continue to run your existing
programs without modification, (unless of course, you had a date issue).

Rob Berendt

==================
A smart person learns from their mistakes,
but a wise person learns from OTHER peoples mistakes.



                    thomas@inorbit.com
                    Sent by:                  To:     midrange-l@midrange.com
                    midrange-l-admin@mi       cc:
                    drange.com                Fax to:
                                              Subject:     Re: SQL vs V5R1 and 
service woes

                    09/11/2001 07:32 PM
                    Please respond to
                    midrange-l






On Fri, 07 September 2001, "R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr." wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Pluta <joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com>
> To: midrange-l@midrange.com <midrange-l@midrange.com>
> Date: Thursday, September 06, 2001 11:08 PM
> Subject: RE: SQL vs V5R1 and service woes
>
>
> >This in fact is a common
> >misconception: if you use SQL, you can change your database more easily.
>
> >"Easier" in this case meant that you could add a field to both files
> without
> >changing the SQL statement.  This is only the case when using "SELECT
*",
> >and my belief is that "SELECT *" really isn't really a common use,
except
> in
> >a subselect.
>
> This is not quite true. If you are using SELECT *, then adding fields to
the
> file means that the program must be able to deal with the new fields that
> are added to the files, just like if you were using native I/O, the
> structure of the target changes and the program must be recompiled. You
> actually allude to that in your next statement.


This is in line with my SQL experience. I often use SQL explicitly to avoid
problems from modified databases (and therefore seldom use 'SELECT *' in
programming).

Similarly, when I create a DDS LF, I also prefer explicitly listing every
field rather than implicitly including all fields. Among other thing, this
helps avoid the need to recompile every program that uses the LF except
programs that need new fields.

Tom Liotta



--
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788
Fax  253-872-7904
http://www.400Security.com


___________________________________________________
The ALL NEW CS2000 from CompuServe
 Better!  Faster! More Powerful!
 250 FREE hours! Sign-on Now!
 http://www.compuserve.com/trycsrv/cs2000/webmail/




_______________________________________________
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@midrange.com
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.