[sidecar71]

Like many of the people that post here, I'm a newbie trying to break into the developer world. Last semester I took a class in java and really enjoyed it. This semester I am considering taking a Database (Oracle) class. I've looked at the textbooks and have attended one lab & lecture, but it just doesn't seem as interesting. Have the more experience programmers found pure database programming to be less interesting than other kinds of 'coding'?

[Gul Banana]

Yep
It's a good way to make money, but if you want new and interesting challenges, stay away from it.

[yeslekmc]

Originally posted by Gul Banana:
Yep
It's a good way to make money, but if you want new and interesting challenges, stay away from it.

NO! NO! NO!

I disagree! I work for a mining company. Nearly EVERYTHING I program involves back-end databases (mostly Oracle). This includes automated machinery and robotics in our integrated lab. It is fun fun fun and extremely interesting and full of constant challenges. I actually get to get dirty while testing out code to run automated sample preparation lines. Nearly everything that goes on in the lab is controlled by computers. Many programs with unique solutions are required. Like I said before, all of that data is stored in databases.

I only have time for a quick, short reply to this... --wish I had more to tell you about the interfaces, upload programs, daemons, and processes that I've written over the last six years to keep this lab running... --If you'd like to know more (or some specifics), just ask and I'll reply later.

It's not that databases are no fun, it's the type of applications accessing the databases that can be a bore. Take financial applications. Most people associate database programming with accounting. And quite a bit of it is. And quite a bit of that is boring as dried snot!

Don't avoid databases. Embrace them! Without databases you often write stand-a-lone programs. With databases you write many programs that interact with each other and make up systems. Systems programming is interesting. Don't single-thread you interests...

[Rickster]

Database programming is extremely fun (and powerfully useful) with Apple's Enterprise Objects Framework. Unfortunately, that's all but dead unless you're using it with Java for WebObjects. *sigh*

[Gul Banana]

Originally posted by yeslekmc:
NO! NO! NO!

I disagree! I work for a mining company. Nearly EVERYTHING I program involves back-end databases (mostly Oracle). This includes automated machinery and robotics in our integrated lab. It is fun fun fun and extremely interesting and full of constant challenges. I actually get to get dirty while testing out code to run automated sample preparation lines. Nearly everything that goes on in the lab is controlled by computers. Many programs with unique solutions are required. Like I said before, all of that data is stored in databases.

I only have time for a quick, short reply to this... --wish I had more to tell you about the interfaces, upload programs, daemons, and processes that I've written over the last six years to keep this lab running... --If you'd like to know more (or some specifics), just ask and I'll reply later.

It's not that databases are no fun, it's the type of applications accessing the databases that can be a bore. Take financial applications. Most people associate database programming with accounting. And quite a bit of it is. And quite a bit of that is boring as dried snot!

Don't avoid databases. Embrace them! Without databases you often write stand-a-lone programs. With databases you write many programs that interact with each other and make up systems. Systems programming is interesting. Don't single-thread you interests...

You sound like you have a point, and given that I don't have any experience with databases other than the aforementioned accounting and a blog comments system, I'm willing to concede that I could well have been wrong about its interestingness.

[Arkham_c]

Databases are a necessity. You do NOT have to be a DBA (worrying about table space, etc.), but you do need to know SQL so you can create and modify tables. Most good persistent data applications use an SQL database in some form. So learn SQL (and then learn something like J2EE so you don't have to write SQL )

SQL is a bit obscure sometimes, but it's pretty straightforward. Learn SELECT, DELETE, and UPDATE, then learn CREATE, DROP, and TRUNCATE. When you have that, you've got enough to get by with SQL, and you can look up the rest (partitioning and indexing to improve performance and avoid full table scans, etc.) as you need it.