On 4 April 2011 22:09, Boris Zbarsky <bzbarsky@mit.edu> wrote: > On 4/4/11 9:25 AM, Keean Schupke wrote: > >> SQL is a standard language (or API) for talking to databases. >> > > It's a family of languages/APIs, which all have slightly different > behaviors. > > > Why should a developer need to learn a different API for each database. >> > > They already do, sadly.... Not completely different, but different in > various ways. > > -Boris > > This is unfortunately true. There is a standard (ANSI92 for example) but each DB vendor seems to ignore some bits of it. However there are different dialects of "C" for example (GNU C, Visual C, Borland Turbo C), so SQL is not alone in being a standard with imperfect implementations. The biggest shortcoming of the ANSI92 standard IMHO is the lack of a standard way of querying and updating meta-data. Fortunately for everyone, the RelationalDB API solves these problems :-) Keean.
Received on Monday, 4 April 2011 22:21:03 UTC