Re: CREATE INDEX and name only some columns

[Tom Liotta <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alan Campin wrote:

>  Use
> Embedded SQL. All the advantages with none of the hassles. 
>
> I for one look forward to the day when we no longer have file I/O being
> used at all, just SQL but the AS/400 will probably be long gone before
> that happens unfortunately. 

Alan:

You'd be surprised at how many 'hassles' can appear when you're 
trying to use embedded SQL in a product for distribution. The 
product can become extremely sensitive to DB2 PTFs. We had a major 
issue a few years ago where every _other_ DB2 group would re-break a 
particular problem. IIRC, it was group 7 thru 13 of that OS/400 
release or some range close to that.

When you have many customers, some of whom will apply PTFs as soon 
as they come out and others of whom might never apply PTFs until our 
Support asks them to, it can get tricky. A problem appears and our 
Support requests that a current group be applied; and a newer group 
comes out that simply breaks it again before the customer has a 
chance... so, we have to get new PTFs requested from IBM to fix what 
was broken after the customer followed our advice.

Some releases have quite a few DB2 PTF groups. The major DB2 
releases can be trouble -- it'll be 'interesting' when V6R1 arrives.

OTOH, good ol' native RLA can seem very friendly at times.

It's one thing to write code that runs on your own system. You know 
the environment and have some control. But when you don't know what 
hardware/software combination is going to wrap around you...?

Setting up test environments can be more than a full-time job.

Tom Liotta