Re: Newbie: What is SQL, Oracle, Access, Powerbuilder?

In article <36460F35.F0C320A9_at_ait.acl.ca>,   Guy Doucet <gdoucet_at_ait.acl.ca> wrote:
> I understand that SQL, Oracle, Access and Powerbuilder are database
> tools.
>

You understand wrong. SQL is a (mostly) standardized language for accessing relational databases. It is implemented by various vendors. You don't buy a copy of SQL. You buy a database product and it will come with a SQL processor -- part of the database access API.

SQL-Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS).

Oracle is a relational database management system (RDBMS).

Access is a RDBMS plus a GUI front-end builder.

Powerbuilder is a GUI application development product that can access whatever RDBMS (as well as other file systems) you choose.

> 1 - Are they the only popular ones that most need to know about?

Depends on why you need to know about *any* of them.
>
> 2 - I believe SQL and Access are Microsoft products, what are Oracle and
> Powerbuilder?

SQL is a language standard. See above. SQL-Server is Microsoft's RDBMS product aimed at the enterprise. Access is Microsoft's lightweight database product aimed at the consumer market and small departmental use. Oracle is by Oracle. Powerbuilder is by Powersoft.

>
> 3 - Without being biased, what is the most popular, simplest, and most
> powerful?
>

Is that "popular AND simple AND powerful" "popular OR simple OR powerful?" Simple and powerful are mutually exclusive. Powerful products are inherently complex. With the products you mentioned, you're already compareing apples and oranges. What are your needs?

> 4 - If I'm creating a VB5 app, what do I need to load to use one of
> those database? I believe Access databases are already recognized by VB.

Depends on the database -- and some of the products you mentioned are not databases.
>
> 5 - I was thinking of buying a book to clear a lot of those questions,
> but then it talks about servers like SQL server and ORACLE server.
> Access is not a server, it is an application like excel or Word (or so I
> thought). What makes SQL a server and what makes that different from
> Access?
>

A database server product like SQL-Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc. A purely database management systems. They are designed for heavy use by many concurrent users over an extensive network. They include heavy duty data locking, backup and recovery capabilities, administrator accessable tuning parameters, etc. They ususally require at least one full time person just to maintain. Multimillion dollar businesses bet the farm on them.

See my descripton of Access above. It is not designed for the heavy duty use undertaken by the likes of SQL-Server, Oracle, etc. It is fine for what is was designed for, but that's not the same thing SQL-Server and Oracle were designed for. You can bet your recipe collection on it, and some departmental data collection and reporting.

> Thanks for any and all replies.
> Guy Doucet
>
>

--
Ed Stevens
Nissan Motor Mfg. Corp., USA

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own Received on Mon Nov 09 1998 - 08:03:22 CST