Mark...
One of the newer and nice error trapping features in T-SQL is the
implementation of the "Try-Catch" block, which I used quite a bit when working
on developing corporate databases.
Another was the use of "select" to to test out functionality. for example,
with T-SQL in a database manager I can write the following...
select 'trailing ''la''' -> which returns trailing 'la' when run.
You can do the same with the following Firebird-SQL statement...
select 'trailing ''la''' from RDB$DATABASE
However, it took me a while to find this capability and I only did so by
accident. This is where a book on "Learning Firebird SQL" would of great
assistance in moving the Firebird up the popularity rankings. In fact, such
books are far more helpful than the language references since these latter
books assume that you have a working knowledge of SQL and do little to promote
the Firebird database beyond the core community.
As it regards the above example, if I remember correctly, I believe there is a
similar statement construct in Oracle.
However, the T-SQL implementation is the most elegant and the easiest to use
and learn.
Cursors in T-SQL have also gotten very powerful and even more efficient with
the later releases of SQL Server. As a result, their complexity is far easier
to learn and use.
As Oracle relies on cursors in a way that SQL Server does not, it is with this
database engine that the power of the cursor is its most extensive.
These are just some examples off the top of my head so to speak...
