Books & Info

Hello Folks! 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! I'm *not* talking about current or former employees of Informix Software, Inc. *Of course* they have inside information about their company's products! I'm talking here about the "little programmer" at XYZ company who is able to answer another subscriber's questions in such a way that it makes me wonder, "Just how in the *world* did he/she know that!!!!!" 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, such as the Open cursor statement. How would the "little programmer" find out (without calling Informix Tech Support or looking in back issues of the Tech Notes publications) exactly what operations are occurring when this statement is run????? It's this type of knowledge that got me thinking about finding some books on Informix. After all, I thought, I see advertisements all the time for books on the popular PC databases, Oracle, and IBM's DB2. Why not Informix? Well folks, I have found only *ONE* book on Informix - and it's not a book about 4GL or ESQL/C ! 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? Again I want to point out that I have seen *numerous* books on the much more popular databases, such as Oracle. The book above is the *only one* that I have seen on Informix. Are there any other Informix books out there? If you know of any others, please post to the List. If none are available, maybe one of you gurus could write one for us??? With Anticipation, John B. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= John Baker USAISC - Lex Lexington - Blue Grass Army Depot Lexington, KY 40511-5109 Phone: (606) 293-3644 or 293-3743 E-mail: jbaker@lexington-emh2.army.mil DSN: 745-3644 or 745-3743 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= P.S. If you have the time to tell us peons how you learned your stuff, we got the beer.