June 22, 2004
JDBC Drivers for SQL Server

We are using Microsoft's own JDBC Driver for SQL Server. It seemed like the natural thing to do. It's not given us any trouble so far.

If it does, I'll bear jTDS in mind: jTDS is 100% JDBC 2.1 compatible, supporting forward-only and scrollable/updateable ResultSets, multiple concurrent (completely independent) Statements per Connection and implementing all of the DatabaseMetaData and ResultSetMetaData methods. A number of JDBC 3.0 features (such as retrieval of generated keys) are also implemented. It also claims to be the most stable and fastest available complete JDBC driver for SQL Server.

(About using SQL Server in the first place; yes, yes, I know. Not my decision. I registered my dissent, but it was out of my hands.)

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at June 22, 2004 04:40 PM
Comments

I used BEA's/Fast Forward driver many years ago. Worked okay (the JDBC-ODBC bridge we had been using crashed frequently due to eccentricities in Microsoft's ODBC driver), but the tech support was appalling.

Posted by: Tom Hawtin on June 22, 2004 07:28 PM

SQL Server isn't a bad database. It is, after all, based on Sybase.

There are only two things I don't really like; the fact that the encoding can differ for every single item (not just row, but field) and that it only runs on Windows ;-)

Posted by: Andy Todd on June 23, 2004 07:57 AM

Oh, and unlike DB2 UDB, you *can* change the definition of a table without having to drop and re-create it. Which is a massive development productivity boost.

Posted by: Andy Todd on June 23, 2004 07:59 AM

How are you finding all the latest MS stuff? I tend to use Linux & MySQL for any of the trivial DB stuff I do at home, so I have never really got into the latest MS dev. I've only got VC++ / studio 5 at home without all the thrills of the extra MS stuff. Looking at all the juicy jobs out there, it really looks like I should get into VB!

I'm starting to get sick of embedded / electronics stuff. It's so booooring. I really want to get back into application programming.....

Posted by: Kevan Thurstans on June 23, 2004 08:47 AM

um, on another note Simon, you may know this. But if you hit the PREVIEW button, regardless whether you want enter a posting or not, you can see all of the posts that have been entered but not showing up due to the error. A handy tip until you sort out a better hosting!

Posted by: Kevan Thurstans on June 23, 2004 08:50 AM

SQL Server the database isn't too bad, but I *hate* the front end. It keeps fucking up the formatting of my SQL - even breaking it, in the case of VIEWs over UNIONs.

DB2/400, the only member of the DB2 family that I've used, *does* allow ALTER TABLE.

Get into VB? Arrrrgh! Don't do it:
http://www.brunningonline.net/simon/blog/archives/000471.html
http://www.brunningonline.net/simon/blog/archives/000716.html

If I were you, I'd look into Java & J2EE for saleability, and into Python for getting stuff done.

Posted by: Simon Brunning on June 23, 2004 09:26 AM

Ah, as bad as that eh? I've always liked BASIC. But I guess being MS, it's probably a million miles away from the days of our ICL (minicom) BASIC :). Ah remember those adventure games we use to write, I've still got some listings somewhere! Probably even got your original 'Elric' adventure.

Hmm, Java, I'm a natural at Java, being a C++ coder. But I haven't touched it for a couple of years. Hmm, maybe I need to write something cool and put it onto my site.

As for python, when I started at this place, god forbid, they needed some 'build apps' written in python. So I went off and learnt what needed to be learnt. I looked into the GUI stuff, did some searches and saw your name came up. Ha I thought, small world. So I'm pretty impressed with python as a script. And think wxWidgets is even cooler. I love cross platform development. It's great!

Posted by: Kevan Thurstans on June 23, 2004 09:46 AM
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