RE: MySQL on System i

["Alan Campin" <Alan.Campin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<snip>
Why do you think that?  The primary motivation for running MySQL on the
System i is that it is the database of choice for PHP.
</snip>

Not sure what you mean by database of choice. I thought almost all PHP
ran on MySQL and that currently is not iSeries. 

My thinking is that if a vendor has a package running on a Windows
platform, they are going to want to continue to have it run there but
maybe not. 

<snip>
As to normalization I don't really understand your comments.  Currently
many
(most?) shops use SQL to access their data in addition to conventional
flat
file access
</snip>

I would agree that many shops use SQL in some way or another but my
experience is that AS/400 programmers fight SQL like death including my
current shop. 

I have been doing SQL for 16 years and do almost all my I/O in SQL now.
I love it. I just wish I could get other people to use it. 

As far as dealing with un-normalized data, I have been through the mill.
I don't know how many occasions I have had to drop back to file I/O
because there was just no way to get to the data through SQL. 

In one case, I had to build an SQL Server database with normalized data
and referential integrity and build code to take the un-normalized data
and convert to normalized updates so we could access it.

I have had to look at doing this more than once at multiple shops.  

You are out there a lot so you probably know the market better than I
do. I was talking to a shop the other day that you went in and did a two
week training on ILE. 

What percentage of AS/400 programmers know SQL do you think? By know, I
mean really know. I have meant more than a few that could type a select
statement in STRSQL but only a few that could do anything beyond that.