SQL Standards

There are a whole lot of standards for generic SQL. These include ISO and ANSI. There are also revisions to the standards as new features are released. I have heard of the SQL-92 standard. But there are many more, the latest of which I have heard of is SQL-2011. These are standards for the SQL language itself, apart from any vendor implementation versions.

SQL itself is a declarative language. That means you tell SQL what you want, and it does it. To retrieve data, you issue the SELECT command with a specific order of keywords: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY. The SQL engine will process those keywords in the following order: FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, SELECT, and ORDER BY.

The processing order is important. One example is that aliases you define in the SELECT clause can only be referenced in it and the ORDER BY clause. All of the other parts of the full SQL statement are processed prior to the SELECT. There are some other specialized optional parts of a SELECT statement that are processed after the ORDER BY. These include TOP and OFFSET.

SQL 2016 Database Development

I have a lot of experience with the Oracle database. Got a couple certifications from Oracle. However, at work I have seen only Microsoft SQL Server jobs that looked interesting. So I think it is time to start learning SQL Server specifics. While I am at it, I might as well try to earn a Microsoft certification (MCSA) as well. The one that suits me best is a certification in SQL 2016 Database Development.

In order to get this certification, I need to pass two tests: (1) 70-761 “Querying Data with Transact-SQL” and (2) 70-762 “Developing SQL Databases”. Both exams cost $165. I found at least one Udemy video to help with the first exam. Microsoft sells prep guides for both exams as well.

I am going to start talking about the prep book for Exam 70-761. It is a whopping 700+ pages. It comes with a CD that will install a program to simulate the actual exam. I plan to taking that practice exam soon. There is also an eBook that comes with the print copy of the prep book. Let the journey begin.

Windows Update

I only do Windows updates periodically. This latest time around, there were almost 40 updates to download/install. Most of them were security updates. This is good. I want the security holes patched on my machine. About 25% of the updates were related to Windows 7. Yes. I still roll with the Windows 7 operating system.

The big surprise was that over half of the updates were to the .NET Framework. What is the takeaway from this? Is .NET having a lot of security problems. Or perhaps a lot of Windows is now buried in the .NET Framework. To answer this, I would need to delve into each of the patches that got applied. Nobody has time for that.

Should I make time?

I recall about two years ago, I wanted to get some programs in the Microsoft store. Had to learn about Windows 8. Even bought and installed a copy of the Win 8 operating system. I studied and practiced how to write a Windows 8 app and get it published. Hurray.


Turns out it is a lot easier these days to publish to the Windows Store. You can even deploy a normal Windows application. This one guy I read about pushed his VB6 application into the store. Can you believe it? Microsoft is making it easy.

Back to Visual Studio

Today I went into the office to meet up with a coworker. We are not working on anything together. But we get together once a week for camaraderie. Today my coworker talked about a tool written by a developer on his project. The tool found all files with the SQL extension, and ran the scripts in the database.


Later I got to thinking about how hard that task would be. I figured I would give it a go to see how long it would take to implement such a thing. That is when I found there was no Visual Studio installed on my work laptop. Ah the horror.


My excuse is that this is a relatively new laptop. The crime is that I only installed Python when I received the laptop. So I downloaded the Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition installer. It was free. It required 6GB with no options selected. I needed to at least have Visual C++ present. That bumped up the requirements to 11GB.


After choosing the minimal options to install, I got some info on what would go down. I would get the Windows 8 SDK. Would also get the common tools. Luckily I was getting the Microsoft Foundation Classes which I am familiar with. Also get Windows XP Support.


Of course setup failed. There were problems with the .NET framework and other things. Let's hope I can get this thing installed. Otherwise I might need to fall back to Python.

Dashboard Fail

Last summer I wrote a bunch of Windows 8 apps. It was part of some promotion from Microsoft. Deployed around eight apps or so. Sold a few. Made a bit of cash. Nothing serious. The best thing about putting my apps on sale was that it motivated me to get my own domain to host my web pages.

I used to check out my earnings every so often using the Microsoft Dashboard for developers. It showed how many copies of my apps sold. Recently I logged into my dashboard. The thing said the dashboard was upgrading. Okay. Turns out I can no longer view my dashboard.

Been working with Microsoft to try to get the problem resolved. Recorded my experience a few times with a tool. Tried different browsers and machines (it does not work using IE). Got a request to upgrade my browser. Umm no thanks. Not going to try that just to see what happens.

Then I get an email from Microsoft support saying that since I was not willing to upgrade my browser, they are done trying to help resolve my issue. LOL wut? I work on resolve software and system problems myself. So I can spot when somebody knows an issue, and when somebody is stumbling around guessing what might affect a problem.

Guess what Microsoft seems to be doing? Making some guesses. Come on. Dig in and figure out what is wrong with your web site. I mean it is serving people developing for Microsoft. Don't you want to keep those people happy and writing more apps for your operating system? Sheesh.

Universale Apps

You can now have a single solution that targets both Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 at the same time. Allegedly you will also be able to target XBox in the future. This is called universale apps. I like the sound of that. My current projects only support Windows 8.1. It would be nice if the same build can crank out Windows Phone or XBox targets too.

The way it works is that you have one solution with with multiple projects in it. Two of the projects are for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1. The other is a shared project. The shared project name ends with shproj. The shared project is like a library and does not output a package. It also cannot be the startup project in Visual Studio.

Speaking of VS, you need Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 to be able to do universal apps. Of course you will also need to be developing on Windows 8.1. Me, I like to code in C++. However if you write code in JavaScript, you can utilize third party frameworks. You know that is popular in the JavaScript world.