Beginning Transact-SQL with SQL Server 2000 and 2005

8

Multi-Table Queries

Last week I rented a diesel front loader to level some property and put in a gravel driveway. I had never operated one before, but I figured that it couldn't be too difficult. It was the kind with four wheels and big rubber tires. It had a big lever on each side, for each hand, that controlled power to the wheels on the left and right sides of the vehicle. The hydraulics were controlled using foot pedals that swiveled in each direction. It really felt like a big arcade game—at first. Needless to say, it took coordination that I had yet to develop when I started. It handled a little differently than my Ford Mustang. The first thing I did was ease the throttle forward and try to go forward up a slight incline. The clutches on the traction controls were very sensitive. I pushed the hand levers too quickly, it lunged forward, and I found myself heading nose-up, popping a wheelie on the rear wheels. The thought of rolling over backward in a five-ton, diesel-powered, steel box was not very appealing. Not about to let my wife show me how to operate a big piece of machinery, I eventually got used to the controls and learned to work with it. By the end of the day, I was tearing up the woods like a five-year-old with a Tonka truck.

The key was to learn how this piece of machinery was engineered to work. Like a racehorse, I had to find that middle ground between what it wanted to do and what I wanted it to do. After I found that space, we got along just fine. Although ...