Re: How would I write this sql

Ethel Aardvark wrote:

>> You describe *exactly* the reason why I dislike open source. Open
>> source is not a program, but just a collection of ill-advised patches
>> and hacks
>>
>>
>> Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA
>
> Sounds like pretty much *anything* produced by Oracle or Microsoft
> then.
>
> If you thought Open Source was supposed to be a *program* I am not
> surprised it fails to meet your expectations.

Well, I think the whole concept of Open Source and what development entails, are a bit lost on the majority of DBAs.

"don't treat Oracle like a black box" is often thrown around by DBAs. I agree. You need to _know_ the "thing" in order to effectively use the "thing".

What they do not realise that the same applies to development. Sure, you get a lot of teeny bopper programmers that just love to treat APIs and Class Libs and what not as black boxes. But then the're not even good enough to program a butt pimple to go pop. (and yes, it is intended to be insulting - a lot of so-called programmers are not programmers)

Open Source means that the developer no longer needs to deal with black boxes.

It also does _not_ mean that you go and willy nilly change Open Source code (like a previous poster suggested). You do it properly - either via CVS and the development & testing process of that Open Source project, or you subclass and do what you need to do to make it behave differently and the way you want it to. Of course, you can also roll your own. If you have the time.

--
Billy