It’s been a while since my last post to this Blog. After trying to solve an Informix stored procedure language (SPL) problem yesterday I thought now would be a good time to do a post on Informix documentation and how poor it is on the IBM Web site to find anything. The problem was with nested FOREACH commands and not exiting out of one when another is complete. Informix has 50 pages dedicated to the SPL statements and yes, you can nest FOREACH statements. But very little is mentioned on control logic after an explicit exit foreach is used, and zero, nil, nada, zilch examples are given.
Also, if you are looking for a good book to purchase on Informix, good luck. Most books available on www.bn.com are from the 90’s. If you do happen to find a current book on Informix it is limited in substance. Looking at my shelf at work I counted 10 books on Oracle and probably have as many at home. Two of my favorite Oracle books are by Tom Kyte. If you want to get a real in depth understanding of how the Oracle engine works, with examples, I would highly recommend his books. I even go to my Oracle books to look up questions that may arise within Informix then try to relate the information I find in the Oracle book to the Informix environment.
Anyway, back to the vendor documentation comparison. My first stop is at the IBM Web site for Informix.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Now where to go.. My first click is on the Informix Library link. I am hopeful that the word documentation will be visible but what I see is another page that gives very little navigation assistance at all. The top of the page has some tabs, Overview, Data sheets, Tech Resources, White papers. The middle of the page is a summary of what is within each tab. I figure the documentation must be in the Tech Resources section. Within the Tech resource section I see bullet points for Articles, Bookstore, Documentation notes and Machine notes. I try the Documentation notes but that takes me, after a couple of clicks, to machine specific information and release notes.
I go back to the home page again thinking that the documentation must be in a different section. I navigate around the IBM Web site until I finally go back to the original Library link. It takes some time on the library page to figure out where the documentation is.
About half way down the page is the URL to the manuals
I like that the reference guides are available “at no charge” Gee, thanks IBM.
Once you find that Informix library is the link to documentation, it can take over 5 clicks to get to where a person can finally look for something.
At the Oracle technology network http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html on the top of the page is “Documentation”, and they don’t fill obligated to let you know it is available free of charge. Also, http://tahiti.oracle.com/ is a link to all Oracle documentation. I don’t know the history of tahiti, but it is easy to remember..
Also, if you are looking for a good book to purchase on Informix, good luck. Most books available on www.bn.com are from the 90’s. If you do happen to find a current book on Informix it is limited in substance. Looking at my shelf at work I counted 10 books on Oracle and probably have as many at home. Two of my favorite Oracle books are by Tom Kyte. If you want to get a real in depth understanding of how the Oracle engine works, with examples, I would highly recommend his books. I even go to my Oracle books to look up questions that may arise within Informix then try to relate the information I find in the Oracle book to the Informix environment.
Anyway, back to the vendor documentation comparison. My first stop is at the IBM Web site for Informix.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Now where to go.. My first click is on the Informix Library link. I am hopeful that the word documentation will be visible but what I see is another page that gives very little navigation assistance at all. The top of the page has some tabs, Overview, Data sheets, Tech Resources, White papers. The middle of the page is a summary of what is within each tab. I figure the documentation must be in the Tech Resources section. Within the Tech resource section I see bullet points for Articles, Bookstore, Documentation notes and Machine notes. I try the Documentation notes but that takes me, after a couple of clicks, to machine specific information and release notes.
I go back to the home page again thinking that the documentation must be in a different section. I navigate around the IBM Web site until I finally go back to the original Library link. It takes some time on the library page to figure out where the documentation is.
About half way down the page is the URL to the manuals
I like that the reference guides are available “at no charge” Gee, thanks IBM.
Once you find that Informix library is the link to documentation, it can take over 5 clicks to get to where a person can finally look for something.
At the Oracle technology network http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html on the top of the page is “Documentation”, and they don’t fill obligated to let you know it is available free of charge. Also, http://tahiti.oracle.com/ is a link to all Oracle documentation. I don’t know the history of tahiti, but it is easy to remember..
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