Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Application design
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that
which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
—Ecclesiastes 1:8-10 KJV
"... old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
—2 Corinthians 5:16-18 KJV
In software development, we are always running into the situation where what is old
is new again and those developers who embrace a philosophy swear by it like a re-
ligion. We swing back and forth from thin server to thin client, between flat and hier-
archical storage, from desktop application to web application and, most appropriately
for this chapter, between client and server programming.
The reason for this swing between programming implementations has nothing to do
with the features that the client or the server offers. Developer experience is a much
more likely influence, and this influence can go in either direction, depending on what
the developer encountered first.
I encourage both the server-centric developer and the client-centric developer to lay
down their pitchforks while reading the rest of this chapter.
We will discuss, in due time, most of the new features of "server programming". If
you're still not convinced by then, we will look at how you can harness the benefit of
most of those features without leaving your application-centered point of view.
Databases are considered harmful
The simplest and least powerful way of looking at server programming is to view the
database as a data bucket. Using only the most basic SQL statements of
INSERT
,
SELECT
,
UPDATE
, and
DELETE
, you can manipulate data a single row at a time and
create application libraries for multiple databases very easily.
