Where's the Payback in Learning New Syntax?
I found Michael Otey's Editorial: "VB 6.0 vs.VB.NET" (July 2001), which talked about the pros and cons of Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET) changes, amusing. Funny how we each have a different way we think a particular detail should work. Otey said he appreciated that True should be 1, not -1, and that a function should return its payload with a return statement rather than assigning the value to the name of the function. I really don't care which way Microsoft implements the functions. What I care about is that these changes mean learning a new syntax with no discernible benefit.
I'm guessing that many of the VB changes aren't a result of trying to add more functionality but rather are a result of personal bias about how something works best. I find that many of the .NET changes fall in this category. For example, what's new about having forms as classes? I've always treated them as such. For implementing inheritance, I found that the Save As choice on the File menu worked nicely. Most of what .NET offers simply causes more work for me with little gain. I don't intend to use Web Services in my programs. And I've been able to achieve almost anything I wanted to do by using a combination of VB 6.0 and the occasional C++ DLL. When I see a true gain for the effort I need to expend to learn the new syntax, I'll do so. But I don't have time to learn something just because it's new.
—Darrell Wilson
dwilson@stonewoodsoftware.com
Using ADO MD to Retrieve Sets
I enjoyed Russ Whitney's Mastering OLAP column "Ready—Get Sets—Go!" (October 2000) and have a question about one of the paragraphs. The article says, "If you're developing a client application and want to take advantage of server-defined sets (named sets that you can define on the server through Analysis Manager), you need to know about the set schema rowset. ActiveX Data Object, Multi-Dimensional (ADO MD) exposes all the OLAP meta data through schema rowsets. For example, each list of cubes, dimensions, levels, and other information has a schema rowset. Each server-defined set has a schema rowset that includes columns for the set name, set description, expression defining the list of tuples, and the dimensions that the set references." However, I can't find a way to retrieve sets by using ADO MD. Can I retrieve a cube's named sets by using ADO MD? If so, can you give me some more information about how?
—Ipek Guven
ipek@technologist.com
You can use ADO MD to retrieve a cube's named sets, but you need the right setup. Here are several things to check:
- Be sure you have SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. The sets schema rowset isn't supported in SQL Server 7.0.
- Make sure you're using the correct MSOLAP provider. When you install Analysis Services, it installs two providers. The version 7.0 provider is compatible with SQL Server 7.0 and doesn't support the version 8.0 provider's new features.
- If you're using Visual Basic (VB), be sure to set your project references to both Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.7 Library and Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (Multi-dimensional) 2.7 Library (version 2.6 will also work; 2.7 is currently in beta). The constant for adSchemaSet is in the first of the two type libraries.
—Russ Whitney
Apart from the Pack
Bill Vaughn's article "ADO Performance Best Practices" (February 2001) was excellent. I've worked with SQL for about a year now, and two or three of the techniques that Vaughn presented were brand-new to me. I think the proper coding of SQL and the time spent actually learning the many different ways to accomplish a task (and their benefits and drawbacks) are what set experienced SQL developers apart from the pack.
—Mitchell Harper
mitchell_harper@hotmail.com
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