Re: DB2 UDB or Oracle (who has better support)

Mark A wrote:

>>Careful there, Mark. Last time I went throught the
>>mainframe vs Unix vs AS400 db2 differences, there were quite
>>a few that can spring on the unwary. Like different limits
>>on field names, lengths, table names, name lengths, and so on.
>>Unless you are aware of those and you code for the least
>>denominator, you can get royally stuck with all this
>>"runs the same everywhere". It may run the same, but
>>it DOES have different limits that may affect your code if
>>you are not aware of them and code defensively.
>>It's a far cry from being just a difference between "/"
>>and "\"!...
>>

> 
> 
> I don't know how many time I have to say this:
> 
> DB2 for AS/400, DB2 for VM, and DB2 for z/OS are all different code bases,
> and they are all different from DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows (which has
> its own single code base).

It is not just a question of a single code base. It is a question of the fact that the developers of the different code bases didn't even work off the same written spec.

Lets get real here. If I walk into a customer site and find the "address" field in the person table is VARCHAR2(30) and the "address" field in the customer table is VARCHAR2(35) I raise an alarm with managment. The fine folks at IBM didn't even rise to that level of consistency. And while the product has many strenghts this is one of its major weaknesses. And one that not only could have been easily avoided but one that shouldn't have been committed by anyone with more than one year of experience in an IT curriculum.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)