Progress Versus SQL Server

Progress is a piece of crap! Sure it runs on Unix. But the time
invested in learning and working with it obscene! With SQL Server I
could easily plan a maintenance backup plan and transaction backup plan
- Progress - well you have to learn about AI files, sizing the BI and
AI files as well as the data files. It's a freakin nightmare. If I
want to see data in a table, can I simply click on a table and open it
- NO! Instead, I have to learn the 4GL language to write a script to
return records (what if I want to resort those records - write another
4GL script and run it again). But hey, why do you want to see the data
in the tables (at least that's what I was told by my company) Progress
GUI - what a joke. This database server might have been popular with
unix but the world today is GUI and Microsoft are the GUI experts.
Even with the GUI tools in Progress, I still can't click on a table,
open it and see the records. Maybe that's not important to others but
as a dba, it sure is a necessity. We're working with different
versions of Progress and none of them integrate with the other. I've
spent 2 months now trying to run some simple database maintenance on
Progress and all I can say is that I hate BI, AI, and D1, D2, D3 files.
Give me SQL Server any day where at least I can manage databases in a
normal logical way without having to deal with a stinkin .ST files and
prostrct this...prostrct that!!! Any Progress responses are welcome
but I'll take you on any day against SQL Server. If you're a
Pro-Progress and anti-SQL Server, you're behind the times - get with
the newest technology and GUI (not a GUI in development.) I have yet
to see a true relational database designed in Progress. Upsizing a
Progress database into a GUI environment - HA!I worked with Progress for several years running mission critical
applications and all I can say is that is an excellent technology as good as
SQL Server or Oracle.
Ben Nevarez, MCDBA, OCP
Database Administrator
"pkohn@.charter.net" wrote:

> Progress is a piece of crap! Sure it runs on Unix. But the time
> invested in learning and working with it obscene! With SQL Server I
> could easily plan a maintenance backup plan and transaction backup plan
> - Progress - well you have to learn about AI files, sizing the BI and
> AI files as well as the data files. It's a freakin nightmare. If I
> want to see data in a table, can I simply click on a table and open it
> - NO! Instead, I have to learn the 4GL language to write a script to
> return records (what if I want to resort those records - write another
> 4GL script and run it again). But hey, why do you want to see the data
> in the tables (at least that's what I was told by my company) Progress
> GUI - what a joke. This database server might have been popular with
> unix but the world today is GUI and Microsoft are the GUI experts.
> Even with the GUI tools in Progress, I still can't click on a table,
> open it and see the records. Maybe that's not important to others but
> as a dba, it sure is a necessity. We're working with different
> versions of Progress and none of them integrate with the other. I've
> spent 2 months now trying to run some simple database maintenance on
> Progress and all I can say is that I hate BI, AI, and D1, D2, D3 files.
> Give me SQL Server any day where at least I can manage databases in a
> normal logical way without having to deal with a stinkin .ST files and
> prostrct this...prostrct that!!! Any Progress responses are welcome
> but I'll take you on any day against SQL Server. If you're a
> Pro-Progress and anti-SQL Server, you're behind the times - get with
> the newest technology and GUI (not a GUI in development.) I have yet
> to see a true relational database designed in Progress. Upsizing a
> Progress database into a GUI environment - HA!
>|||pkohn@.charter.net wrote:
> Progress is a piece of crap! Sure it runs on Unix. But the time
> invested in learning and working with it obscene! With SQL Server I
> could easily plan a maintenance backup plan and transaction backup plan
> - Progress - well you have to learn about AI files, sizing the BI and
> AI files as well as the data files. It's a freakin nightmare. If I
> want to see data in a table, can I simply click on a table and open it
> - NO! Instead, I have to learn the 4GL language to write a script to
> return records (what if I want to resort those records - write another
> 4GL script and run it again). But hey, why do you want to see the data
> in the tables (at least that's what I was told by my company) Progress
> GUI - what a joke. This database server might have been popular with
> unix but the world today is GUI and Microsoft are the GUI experts.
> Even with the GUI tools in Progress, I still can't click on a table,
> open it and see the records. Maybe that's not important to others but
> as a dba, it sure is a necessity. We're working with different
> versions of Progress and none of them integrate with the other. I've
> spent 2 months now trying to run some simple database maintenance on
> Progress and all I can say is that I hate BI, AI, and D1, D2, D3 files.
> Give me SQL Server any day where at least I can manage databases in a
> normal logical way without having to deal with a stinkin .ST files and
> prostrct this...prostrct that!!! Any Progress responses are welcome
> but I'll take you on any day against SQL Server. If you're a
> Pro-Progress and anti-SQL Server, you're behind the times - get with
> the newest technology and GUI (not a GUI in development.) I have yet
> to see a true relational database designed in Progress. Upsizing a
> Progress database into a GUI environment - HA!
>
Tossing in my 2-cents... I'm not a Progress guy, never touched it. I
do however find it interesting that your entire argument seems to be
based on SQL offering a better GUI. I blame that GUI for some of the
basic, everyday questions that cross this newsgroup on a daily basis.
My database has been running for 2 years, and my transaction log is
250GB, why? How can I export a database to a different server? The GUI
that you seem to cherish allows any Access user to think he's a SQL
Server DBA, without forcing him/her to learn the most basic tasks.
Point-and-click through the maintenance plan wizard, without
understanding a thing about what it's actually doing, all is well until
that plan begins to fail. Since they never understood what it was
doing, they have no idea where to start troubleshooting. Oh, look,
there's a "New Database Wizard", I can create a database! What's my
backup strategy? Do I need transactional recovery capabilities, or are
daily full backups enough? Dunno, the wizard didn't ask me those questions.
Personally, the only time I touch Enterprise Manager is when I have to
work with some DTS package that somebody dragged objects onto,
connecting them with workflow lines, because that's the only way they
know how to execute a stored procedure.