in reply to Perl and Database

Of the 3 DBMSs you suggest, I would lean towards Oracle or Informix as a starting point, especially if you're just learning, since both support (and extend) the ANSI SQL standard whereas M$, quite typically IMO, have seen fit to modify the ANSI SQL standard in SQL_Server.

That being said, as has been said previously on this thread, MySQL would provide a better (aka far cheaper:-) starting point - from there you can, if funds permit, then go on to Oracle/Informix...

A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))

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Re^2: Perl and Database
by tilly (Archbishop) on Aug 20, 2009 at 15:34 UTC
    If you're just trying to learn the system, funds are not an issue with Oracle. They only want you to pay once you're hooked.

    The reasoning for this strategy is very well explained in Information Rules.

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Re^2: Perl and Database
by james2vegas (Chaplain) on Aug 20, 2009 at 10:32 UTC
    If your reason for dismissing MS SQL is its poor ANSI SQL support, wouldn't it be more consistent of you to suggest something more SQL compliant amongst the free database servers, i.e. PostgreSQL or Firebird (even SQLite is better)? MySQL has been worse in supporting standard SQL than Microsoft (at least since MS SQL 6.5).
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