Monday 12 July 2004
Relational Databases – Emlyn O’regan
In the IT world of the year 2004, relational databases are a fairly uncontroversial technology. Yet using these databases is still seen by many, especially small systems developers, to be overkill, wasteful of resources, or just plain inefficient in terms of performance.
In this presentation Emlyn will talk about relational databases and how they can work in the world of small systems (and Delphi!).
Part 1:
In the first part of the presentation, Emlyn will talk about the theory of relational databases, and about SQL in particular. SQL is often misunderstood by software developers, resulting in an impression of relational databases as slow and unwieldy. By covering a little relational theory, and going into some depth on the basics of SQL (select, insert, update and delete statements), I’ll show how these databases can be used effectively, minimizing coding time and defects, and delivering excellent performance
Part 2:
In the second part of the presentation, I’ll talk about database specifics for various applications and architectures. The big end of town is well served by relational databases, but less well known is the wide availability of db solutions for small development. One interesting example will be SQL Server’s MSDE, the free desktop edition of SQL Server.