Approaching Omnis again scares me, too much to learn?

[Jerry Greenberg]

Hi Das, basic SQL is actually pretty simple and 
for most desktop/dml type apps that's all you'll 
really need.  Sure for ultimate efficiency you 
can create some complex SQL but for smaller apps 
it's really not necessary.  Learn the strategies 
of connecting your tables, learn your joins and 
you'll be off to a running start.

As you may recall I have been around Omnis since 
the 80s as well, and for a while on the Omnis 
Consulting team, and I have worked with many of 
the developers here and on numerous large 
projects and I think my best advice for you is 
this.  Understand that much of what you read here 
on the list comes from developers that have or 
currently work on multi developer teams, for 
large companies, and on very large projects, and 
the techniques they use have some great 
advantages in that environment.  But, to try and 
implement those techniques in a single developer 
environment is most likely counter productive, 
daunting and complex.  You may want to learn some 
of those techniques down the line but you don't have to use them.

My suggestion is to learn basic sql, and forget 
about table classes, and query classes for now. 
(if you use them you won't be learning your 
sql)  Just use the schema classes, define your 
lists and rows from the schema classes, create 
some select statements, and use your notation 
skills to access the data.  It's a good start.


oh btw. the sqllite database is a great little 
database which I look at as a great replacement to the datafile.


Good luck,
Jerry

At 03:55 PM 1/2/2018, you wrote:
>Hello All, I am RE approaching Omnis with a view 
>to becoming a developer/consultant to 
>businesses. I am completely expert with Omnis 
>and the native database it provides, but don’t 
>know SQL or anything else, I only know Omnis. I 
>don’t know any other language at all.  I go 
>back to 86 but haven’t done anything for ten 
>years.  It’s scary enough to have to learn SQL 
>and how to connect to databases.  But all the 
>stuff you guys and gals discuss here and on the 
>other forum scares me.  How did you all learn 
>all about Java and Jason and Restful etc 
>etc.  How do you keep it straight in your heads? 
>My real question is this:  If I could learn SQL 
>and how to setup and maintain backends and the 
>connectivity, is that enough to be a consultant 
>today?  I imagine right away the next point is 
>that businesses will want phone access apps, 
>tablet apps, to access their databases and then 
>I’d be looking at Javascript which I don’t 
>know. At age 57 and reapproaching, I wonder how 
>much time it takes to learn these things and 
>begin consulting. Are all these fancy other 
>things smaller than Omnis learning itself?  I 
>sure hope so.  It took a good while to learn 
>Omnis.  I’m very good at Omnis but only Omnis 
>Native.  Don’t yet know what a Schema is, but 
>I can do notation to control anything, I can do 
>complex interfaces and handle complex 
>data.  Just dont know anything else.  Do any 
>businesses still go for using the Native 
>Datafile?  With that I’m ready already. One 
>reason I want to learn SQL is to earn more.  The 
>businesses for which the Native datafile is 
>appropriate are smaller and poorer.  I believe 
>you can charge more to the SQL requiring 
>businesses.  Comments? Is the "Lone Developer" 
>still possible?   You all seem to be in teams. 
>Just scared badly.   Any help appreciated. 
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