Bits.Bytes.

One of my favourite expressions happens the be this one “Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory”. At a very simplistic level it means simply when you are on the verge of success, you do something of a monumentally doofus nature that knocks you flat on your back.

Numerous examples of these abound at Redmond, but let me confine myself to one that really gets my goat.

Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals

When I heard this being announced I was very ecstatic, because in my eclectic list of duties, I do quite a bit of database work in addition to development.

The notion of a versioned database, ability to ‘deploy’ to production, debugging, comparing procedure source, etc gives me the feelings the Israelites get when a delivery of hot, steaming manna arrived from the heavens.

That it is a brilliant idea is not in doubt. However reality gave me a swift kick in the pants when I read that it would only support SQL 2005 and SQL 2000.

Naturally there were indignant howls of protest from people who used other databases. And in true form, a bright eyed enthusiastic young man with starched collars, under the firm control of marketing, responds to the cry for alternative database support with a truly classic response

Thanks for the interest.  For V1, we will have support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 & 2005.  We have heard the request for having the tools work with other database platforms and are investigating that for a future release.
Robert Merriman
Test Manager
VS Team Data

Mr Merriman, let me save you the time, money and grief you will require in your investigation.

WE WANT THIS SUPPORT. YESTERDAY!!!

Right now in my company we develop software using the following database Engines:

• SQL Server 2005
• SQL Server 2000
• Sybase ASA 8
• Sybase ASA 9
• Sybase ASA 10
• Jet

As you can imagine keeping things in sync in development, testing and production environments is a nightmare. At times, as I behold the world through bleary eyes, I feel sure that re-incarnation is a fact and in a past life I was one of those Roman Soldiers who Abu Ghraibed the Christians.

That Mr Merriman and his team appear to react with pleasant surprise that people using Visual Studio actually develop against other database engines leaves me unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Perhaps someone at marketing can take a look at these rough estimates on a random sample

• Let x be the total number of developers developing database driven software / databases
• Let y be the total number of developers who think VSTS Database Edition is the shiznit / bees’ kees
• Let a be the number of developers using SQL Server 2000 + 2005
• Let b be the number of developers using other database engines

We can reasonably assume that x tends towards y.

So, if we assign estimates, we get data as follows:

• Total No. Of Developers 100, x
• No. Desiring Visioning, Testing, etc 100, y
• No. Using SQL Server 20, a
• No. Using Everything else 80, b

Now, let us plot this data

Now, comparing this sample data against sound business & technological strategy, we come up with the following chart:

A decision to target fewer engines (25%) as opposed to more leads us to develop a coefficient we shall call the Insanity Coefficient, IO.

A few weeks back an enthusiastic trainer briefed a warmly appreciative audience about the benefits of this product. That we were sold was not in doubt. But his smile turned ghastly when I attempted to get him to give me a good reason why only SQL was supported.

His feeble “technical issues”, punctuated by a finger slid to ease a suddenly tight collar, was not convincing.

I refuse to believe in 2007 that Microsoft with all its business and technical savvy can repeat the numerous mistakes made in the past and hard cod support for SQL Server. I will eat my hat if there is code like

   1: SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);

I am very sure that the product is built on Interfaces, with a SQL Server Implementation used for the actual product. So the Code would be more like:

   1: IConnection cn = new DatabaseEngineFactory.CreateFactory(connectionString);

If indeed the product was constructed this way, then it would result in an email like this:

from: sales@microsoft.com

to: info@oracle.com; info@sybase.com; info@mysql.com; info@Db2.com; info@posgtres.com

Dear fellas,

No doubt you’ve heard of Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals, and that it only supports SQL Server. Well, since you are our partners, we wanted to cut you a piece of the action. Find attached a number of C# interface files. All we want you to do is implement the interfaces to support your databases and send us the compiled, obfuscated DLLS to include in Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals. We can even brand the software when using your particular providers. Is that cool or what?

It is a win win situation for everyone. Your customers can use Visual Studio and not lose out on their productivity. We can sell more copies of Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals.

I know you want to ask what’s in it for you in particular. Well, how does an annual fruit basket sound?

So again I’d like to know a convincing reason why other databases cannot be supported. Everyone and everyone would benefit if it were the case.

NB: I am not in the least bit surprised to hear that LINQ To SQL supports only SQL Server.