Jim Hoffman - Database Geek of the Week!
Jim Hoffman is the rarest of technical people. After working for a long time as a heavy duty database geek, he was able to move into a management role and continue his success in that arena. So, I guess Jim is a reformed Database Geek. Jim began working with SQL Server really early on, working with the first port of the Sybase database onto the Windows platform. From the interview:
Doug: You were involved in some early work on SQL Server. What do you think have been the greatest differences in the product from then to now?
Jim: The optimizer is smarter. The tools are better. The profiler, especially, has seen continuous improvement. It may be SQL Server’s most underappreciated development tool.
There are some significant non-technical issues as well. The development community for SQL Server in the mid-1990s was relatively small, and there was more access to technical staff at Microsoft. You could easily get a same-day customized patch if you discovered a critical bug, for example. As SQL Server has grown more popular, things have changed by necessity. The flip side is that with the almost simultaneous growth of the Internet, there are more resources available to the developer or DBA.
The entire interview is here.