Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Introduction
And so the journey continues, and, as I’ve said before, what a long, strange trip it’s been. When I first
wrote Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming in early 1999, the landscape of both books and the development
world was much different than it is today. At the time, .NET was as yet unheard of, and while
Visual Studio 98 ruled the day as the most popular development environment, Java was coming on
strong and alternative development tools, such as Delphi, were still more competitive than they typically
are today. The so-called “dot com” era was booming, and the use of database management systems
(DBMS), such as SQL Server, was growing exponentially.
There was, however, a problem. While one could find quite a few books on SQL Server, they were all oriented
toward the administrator. They spent tremendous amounts of time and energy on things that the
average developer did not give a proverbial hoot about. Something had to give, and as my development
editor and I pondered the needs of the world, we realized that we could not solve world hunger or arms
proliferation ourselves, but we could solve the unrealized need for a new kind of SQL book — one
aimed specifically at developers.
At the time, I wrote Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming to be everything to everyone. It was a compendium.
It started at the beginning and progressed to a logical end. The result was a very, very large
book that filled a void for a lot of people (hooray!).
With SQL Server 2005, SQL Server was in its second revision since I released my first book and, as we
did the planning for that round of books, we realized that we once again had a problem — the Professional
title was too big to fit in a single book. The new features of SQL Server 2005 created a situation
where there was simply too much content to squeeze into one book (we literally exceeded the bindery
limits for a book), and so we made the choice to split the old Professional series title into a Beginning
and a more targeted Professional pair of titles. A lot of work was put into the split, but, in the end, there
was still a significant degree of overlap. SQL Server 2008 adds yet another stack of new features, provides
me the opportunity to take the Professional title even more toward the advanced reader, and allows me
to round out the Beginning title more cleanly.
My hope is that, in this book, you find something that covers all of the core elements of SQL Server with
the same success that we had in the original Professional SQL Server Programming titles. When we’re
done, you should be set to be a highly functional SQL Server 2008 programmer and, when you need it,
be ready to move on to the more advanced Professional title.
Who This Book Is F or
It is almost sad that the word “beginner” is in the title of this book. Don’t get me wrong; if you are a
beginner, then this title is for you. But it is designed to last you well beyond your beginning days. What
is covered in this book is necessary for the beginner, but there is simply too much information for you to
remember all of it all the time, and so it is laid out in a fashion that should make a solid review and reference
item even for the more intermediate, and, yes, even advanced user.