Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Job scheduler in SQL server Express

So it has been a couple of days and my exceedingly large fan base has been clamoring for more insight and wisdom so here I am ready to wow you all with said insight and wisdom.

See this is the problem with setting the bar too high. I could never truly deliver on that suggestion. How often do we promise more and deliver less as opposed to promising less and delivering more. I always try to do the later. Set expectations at a realistic level and then when you deliver more, people will be surprised and elated. How often in your day to day life do you get more than you expected ( and I mean good stuff, not like more work)? And how happy are you when that happens? Exactly.

So what does any of this have to do with the title? Well Microsoft is notorious for getting this wrong. They almost always promise more and deliver less. Some times these promises are direct and sometimes implied based on what was delivered in the past. That is why people love Linux and Apple. What they promise, they deliver, and then some. Linux will promise you that it might work, when it does, you are excited so anything else it does is bonus. Apple tends to promise cool, crisp and clean design, ease of use and those types of things. So when it comes to your house and it actually is that you are happy. But when you start playing with the device or using the machine you get features and usability that surpass anything you expected. In Microsoft's case it was the latter. They set expectations based on what they had delivered in the past. In SQL Server 2005 the job scheduler is not present because the server agent is not present. This was not the case in SQL Server 2000. I know they did some stuff with the license and I am sure they have some reason for doing this but I find it hard to believe that this is, in any way, promising less and delivering more.

So in the express addition you have to create your own way of scheduling jobs. To this end, the people over at The Code Project were kind enough to publish Danilo Corallo's code for accomplishing just this very thing. So as Microsoft continues to promise more and deliver less, we will continue to fill in the gaps and find alternative methods to accomplish what we should be able to accomplish. Fortunately for Microsoft, we are doing it on their software platform.........For now.

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