Re: Call for an API standard for SQL statements

"Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote in message news:GDGed.520822$8_6.346279_at_attbi_s04...
> "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote in message
news:clf16e$4ui$1_at_news.netins.net...
> > >
> > > 1) Many customers ask for things they won't actually use.
> > > 2) ERP vendors fall in to the category of ISV that in another post
> > > I mentioned as being the one category of entity that can actually
> > > use DBMS independence because they deploy on many sites with
> > > many different customers DBMSs.
> > >
> > > I don't think customers *actually* need DBMS independence
> > > nearly as much as they think they do.
> >
> > Both tools & applications that are written to be licensed to many
companies
> > need database independence. This is not typically because customers
require
> > such independence, but because one prospective customer uses one
database
> > and one another.
>
> Just so.
>
> Custom software does not need this independence, though; nor do
> custom applications need OS independence.

I guess I agree they do not "need" it, however, as a former Pr1me computer user, it was sure good that we ran our applications in a virtual machine that was implemented on UNIX. Portability between OS's can be very helpful if we can build it into the app from the beginning so as not to lock ourselves into a single OS. This can be done today using a virtual machine as our target "OS". I suspect we will want something similar in the DB area too at some point. If the language I use can run within .NET or a JVM and if those virtual machines can run on multiple OS's (not quite there yet with .NET IIRC) and if the database and the UI in use also span OS's, the investment in the custom software is well protected, especially if the language used is not proprietary.

So, just as those who write packaged software applications and tools will want this type of portability, I think that companies will want that in the future as well for their custom software. Said another way, since the first of these groups will insist on such portability, once it is there other companies will adopt it as well. --dawn Received on Sun Oct 24 2004 - 19:14:14 CEST