Inside Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005

Foreword

Shortly after Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 shipped in the late 1990s, I quizzed a senior developer in the Microsoft IT department about the programming languages she and her team were using when working with SQL Server. "In the past we were writing code in C and Visual Basic, but now we are developing only in T-SQL." This revelation was an eye opener for me. At that time, I had been working on developing new versions of SQL Server for about three years, and it was only then that I realized that very large projects were being developed using T-SQL and that the T-SQL programming language had become the tool of the trade for many individuals. Since then, Microsoft has invested heavily in the new releases of SQL Server including significant enhancements ...