Tony Masefield wrote:

> My first *PC* goes back to 1976 (HP 9815 from memory - 1008 *program
> steps* - i.e. Bytes memory) so when I say my programming is 'on and
> off' you know what I mean.

I pre-date you but I used the HP. We had one, but we also used 'mark
sense' cards to produce punched cards for an ICL1900 - that was 1973 or so.

> Wish now I had done Computer Science at Uni rather than Chemistry...

My Masters was in Digital Systems - the first year that a specialist
course was run at Brunel - The lecturers were researchers in this 'new
technology'.

> Never wrote anything CS type up until a few years back (using
> Advantage). 99% of what I have ever done was *desktop* based so SQL
> is new to me. Just have to remember where Delphi ends and SQL
> starts ...

Having used dBase for many years *I* am still learning on this new
fangled SQL stuff :)

One suggestion - look at stored procedures and triggers - much of the
time things you are trying to do in the client are better of in the
server. Something I am slowly appreciating.

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://home.lsces.co.uk
Model Engineers Digital Workshop -
http://home.lsces.co.uk/ModelEngineersDigitalWorkshop/
Treasurer - Firebird Foundation Inc. - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php