Introduction to NonStop SQL/MP

Support for Open Standards
Introduction to NonStop SQL/MP
1–14 113425 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Support for Open
Standards
By using standard programming tools and network protocols, you can minimize
training for multiplatform application development, and you can take advantage of a
wide variety of tools that adhere to industry standards.
Easy-to-Use ANSI SQL Access to NonStop SQL/MP is through ANSI-standard and ISO-standard SQL, a
language specifically designed for easy access to relational databases.
SQL is easy to learn. It is a concise language comprising a limited number of Data
Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements. You
use only four DML statements to manipulate data—SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, and
UPDATE. Yet you can use these statements to write complex queries to satisfy a
variety of application needs.
Moreover, you can write DML statements that focus on the logical organization of the
data without having to worry about the specifics of the physical database. For
example, you do not need to be overly concerned about the order of WHERE clauses
in a query, nor do you need to specify that an index should be used.
NonStop SQL/MP automatically optimizes your queries to execute efficiently against
the physical NonStop SQL/MP database.
Open System Services
(OSS)
You can develop applications using either the traditional Tandem Guardian services
or using industry-standard services as provided by Tandem’s Open System Services
(OSS). Programs in COBOL using traditional Guardian calls and programs in C using
POSIX calls (in the OSS environment) can concurrently access the same data and be
governed by the same concurrency constraints and transaction controls. The active
data dictionary dynamically manages both Guardian-based programs and OSS-based
programs. Programs from either environment have equal access to NonStop SQL/MP
data.
Accessing Data With
Desktop Software
You can also develop applications using the latest in PC and workstation client tools.
NonStop SQL/MP supports a variety of industry-standard client/server application
program interfaces (APIs) such as ODBC, EDA/SQL, DAL, SQL Server, and
SQL*Connect.
Because many popular client applications are compatible with these APIs, you can, in
many cases, use software tools you are already familiar with to access
NonStop SQL/MP data. Further, business-oriented end users do not have to know
anything about NonStop SQL/MP, because Tandem API products such as the
NonStop ODBC Server automatically translate their requests into NonStop SQL/MP
queries.
With these packaged software tools, end users can easily create queries by pointing
and clicking on icons and menu items. In addition, a number of application
development tools provide a standardized environment in which client programmers
can develop more specialized queries to satisfy their company’s requirements. Both
types of tools have open access to NonStop SQL/MP.