Comment by zbentley
4 hours ago
The difficulties that even experienced programmers have with SQL are far more than just the syntax. And, given what most people need the database for, that difficulty is pretty disproportionate to the complexity of the task.
I think the “it’s just syntax bro, learn it!” critique is about as ill-fitting as the claim that embedding a scripting language in a larger program is pointless because “assembly/C89 is just syntax bro, learn it!”
I take what you’re saying about difficulty being disproportionate to the task as an indicator of ability.
It’s literally so damn simple to knock out a database & some crud functions either as a desktop app or a website that the complaints in this thread are hilarious.
That comes across as arrogant and rude. Assuming you actually want to engage, I discussed some of the reasons that this can be hard here: https://www.scattered-thoughts.net/writing/against-sql
Particularly relevant is the part of that link which discusses having to pervasively refactor queries to add even a simple synthetic join or computed column. That’s a pain in the ass even for experienced DBAs, and is fundamentally not time well spent for row-at-a-time cases that are often, as you said, simple CRUD.
Are you sure you aren’t overfitting based on working on only one small, simple subset of the things people commonly use SQL for?