Server-Side Procedures
By Ken North
The relative importance of a database to a Web developer sometimes depends on the developer's view of the world, and his or her role in it. It should depend on factors such as system requirements or user needs, but developers sometimes lapse into egocentric choices, identifying with their tool or language of choice. The problem with this is that a developer who becomes an evangelist for a certain language, tool, or technology often loses objectivity. If the person also happens to be in a position of influence, an organization can be saddled with technology that is a poor solution for some of its problems.
When Java was a newborn, there was an interesting message thread about databases in one of the usenet newsgroups. Someone was about to start a database project and he asked about books that explained client-server databases and relational, hierarchical, and network-model DBMS. One of the replies suggested a book whose title included the word "Windows." The next reply said something like "I've not read the book but it can't be much good because it's about Windows databases." Then, the message drifted off into an endorsement of Java, with recommendations of introductory books on Java programming. The message and reply were posted before there were APIs for using Java with databases. The reply did not recommend Java as a complement to a DBMS; it just promoted Java -- no native libraries.
The message seemed to say, "We are going to abandon all existing code and rewrite everything in Java.
