Re: SQL within application programs

John,

I'm in agreement with your statements, in that SQL does get improved at the
hardware/OS level.  IMHO, the -real- benefit in using SQL is in reduced cost of
software maintenance.

Hardware keeps keeping less expensive and people (programmers/analysists) keep
getting more expensive.  If a site makes the short term vs long term decision to
use SQL exclusively for ALL disk access they may have to purchase a faster
processor to achieve the familiar throughput, but they have also purchased a 
door
of opportunity.

Those shops that still relegate their computer to the accounting department may
not realize the same potential as those that view a computer as an enterprise
asset.   In a constrained environment one may not have the luxury of choice.

Sigh, life is a series of choices ;-)

James W. Kilgore
email@James-W-Kilgore.com

John Hall wrote:

> Dibrell, Branston wrote:
> >
> > I think of SQL as being good in terms of being able to separate out your
> > front-end programs from your back-end database.  If all access to the
> > database was with SQL, you could (in theory) move the database onto another
> > box (even another platform) and not affect the programs.
> >
> > Actually (I'm no expert, but), I think of SQL as being rather inefficient
> > when it comes to complicated queries, etc.
> >
>
> Sometimes SQL will take much longer to accomplish the same thing as RPG
> CHAIN/DELETE Etc but in many situations it is as fast or faster.
>
> It is important to remember that the efficiency of SQL is improved from
> release to release and routines written in SQL will automatically pick
> up these improvements.
>
> Also changes to the underlying database (including the operating system)
> are often transparent to the SQL
>
> for Example
>
> DELETE FROM DATAFILE WHERE TYPE = 'OLD'
>
> will work on most systems and on any 'DATAFILE' with a column named TYPE
>
> John Hall
> Home Sales Co.
>

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