Re: Books & Info

John Baker writes:- > > After spending two months reading messages, I've come to the conclusion that > there are some Informix uses who have access to "inside" information regarding > the operation of Informix's products. I'd like to know just where or how you > folks learned your stuff! > > One thing that comes to mind is undocumented features. To me, if it's not in > the Reference Manual, then it doesn't exist. So just how does one go about > finding out about such things? As another example, take any 4GL statement, A lot of the information comes from careful sifting of the manuals. It is often the case that snippets of information are in different manuals. The Tech Notes and the more knowledgeable Informix Support Staff are also very good sources. One final source are the course training notes. For instance the Online Database Admin course manual contains a considerable amount of info on Online not in the User manual. You do have to pay for the course. (As Online is a reasonably complicated product this is only sensible anyway). The nice useful guru (idiot...) types with consideration for the rest of us (with nothing better to do...) do things like read the c source that 4GL generates and reverse engineer the undocumented function calls so that we can make use of them. A lot of these have also come into the public domain from Informix staff working on particular client applications. Finally trial and error and long experience with the product set teaches you a great deal about how it works and where to look for problem work arounds. > The book is "INFORMIX-SQL: A Tutorial and Reference" by Informix product > manager Tony Lacy-Thompson? Has anyone seen a copy of this book? Does it > contain any "inside" information? Can anyone give a book review? > This book is a good course in ISQL and does contain a number of tips on the product. (Tony did you ever find my copy or has Gerry stolen it? If you find it can you send it on. Please!). There is an Introduction to 4GL written by Mark Sobell but its only an introductory course on 4GL with no coverage on how to achieve more advanced facilities. There is another book which I haven't seen but it is apparently similar to Mark's book. Cheers, Jim, -------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Jim Gordon Internet: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM Company: DHL Systems Inc Phone: (415) 358-5911 Address: 1700 S. Amphlett Blvd. Fax: (415) 571-6429 San Mateo, CA 94402 --------------------------------------------------------------------