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How Has SQL or PL/SQL Changed Your Life?

It's not hard to identify some of the key enabling technologies of the Information and Internet Eras: Windows, Linux, HTTP, HTML and Java all come to mind.

But likely what doesn't come to mind immediately, these days, is:

SQL and PL/SQL

Seriously, how important can these be or have been when there's an entire software movement that puts the word "No" in front of SQL?

Extremely important, it turns out.

The SQL language, with its set-oriented and declarative power, revolutionized the way programmers, DB administrators and at least some end users worked with, and work with, data.

PL/SQL enabled the creation of powerful, effective mission-critical applications that run pretty much everything that modern human society relies on, day to day.

Sadly, we work in an industry that is perhaps more fashion conscious than the fashion industry. itself. We are always driven to get excited about the latest, greatest (or at least newest) thing. And when a technology's been around for 35 years how good could it really be, anymore?

Pretty darn good, when you're talking about SQL.

I get it that SQL and the relational model at least temporarily has been unable to handle the demands of Big Data and unstructured data. I get it that the world has changed a lot and there are some new requirements out there.

I get all that. What I don't get is that these new requirements cover a tiny percentage of use cases. The vast majority of applications, of user requirements related to data, are still handled best with the relational model.

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater!

Well, folks, it's time to fill up the bath with sparkling spring water and put Baby SQL and Baby PL/SQL back in. [That's probably stretching the metaphor too far, but since I love babies so much, I will go with it. Don't believe me? Check out the Flickr page for my granddaughter.]

It's time, in other words, to "fight back", to recognize the incredible value and importance of the technologies with which we work, and of the work we do.

It's time, in short, to celebrate SQL and PL/SQL!

At Oracle Open World 2014, Oracle Technology Network will host the first-ever YesSQL! A celebration of SQL and PL/SQL.

No feature Powerpoints. No demos. Here's the description:

Co-hosted by Tom Kyte and Steven Feuerstein, YesSQL! celebrates SQL, PL/SQL, and the people who both make the technology and use it. At YesSQL!, special guests Andy Mendelsohn, Maria Colgan, Andrew Holdsworth, Graham Wood and others share our stories with you, and invite you to share yours with us, because?.

YesSQL! is an open mic night. Tell us how SQL and PL/SQL - and the Oracle experts who circle the globe sharing their expertise - have affected your life! 

Bottom line: If developing applications against Oracle Database is a big a part of your life, join us for a fun and uplifting evening.

I hope you can join us at the event (you'll be able to sign up for YesSQL! just like for a regular OOW session). 

 But if you can't (or even if you can), you can share your story with us, right here (and on the PL/SQL Challenge, in our latest Roundtable discussion).

 How has SQL and/or PL/SQL and/or Oracle Database changed your life, personally, professionally or otherwise? We will select some of your stories to read at the YesSQL! event and if you are attending, you can tell the story yourself.

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