I received an essay from Steve Hechtman, president of Inductive Automation, the other day. He owns a software development company specializing in Software as a Service (SaaS) HMI/SCADA, among other things. I wrote about them after my trip to Northern California last spring. Anyway, his essay expounds the belief that since engineers know how to program PLCs and other controllers, the necessary next step is “programming” in Structured Query Language (SQL). Since so much of what is done today involves information and data, and since data are typically stored in databases, and since many databases are SQL-based, then this is necessary knowledge.

So, this started me thinking while I was running this morning. Should more people learn SQL? Or, do you all already know it? Should I develop articles about it for Automation World? Should we run some Web seminars or something similar?

I learned about databases early in my computer life, then learned what to do at the “dot prompt” (remember DB III?). Learned a little about SQL. I’m far from a database expert, obviously. But this whole idea intrigues me. I never thought about it.

What do you think? Is this “old news?” Or, is it something to be promoted? Let me know.

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