I'm just getting into the whole database driven website 'mess' and I ran 
out and bought Beginning ASP Databases.

The question I have is what's the deal with the creating a DSN for a SQL 
Datastore?  Do I have to have a SQL server to run all this SQL code in the 
book?  If that's the case, then how much of this book is going to be 
worthless to me?

I'm currently running WinXP Pro and IIS 5.1.  If I want to take advantage 
of everything this book has to teach me, does that mean I have to either 
shell out some huge amount of cash for SQL server, or burn through the 
book in 30 days before a trial version of SQL server expires?

SQL stands for Structured Query Languange. It is an ANSI standard and is
independent of database vendors. (Of course, each DBMS has its own
"extensions" to the SQL standard).

Most SQL will run fine against any DBMS (eg Access, mySQL, SQL Server,
Oracle etc)

Lastly, the trial version of SQL Server should last you 120 days, not 30.

Cheers
Ken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Mortikhi Relentless" <mortikhi@h...>
Subject: [asp_database_setup] Beginning ASP DB's SQL Datastore question (pg.
67)


: I'm just getting into the whole database driven website 'mess' and I ran
: out and bought Beginning ASP Databases.
:
: The question I have is what's the deal with the creating a DSN for a SQL
: Datastore?  Do I have to have a SQL server to run all this SQL code in the
: book?  If that's the case, then how much of this book is going to be
: worthless to me?
:
: I'm currently running WinXP Pro and IIS 5.1.  If I want to take advantage
: of everything this book has to teach me, does that mean I have to either
: shell out some huge amount of cash for SQL server, or burn through the
: book in 30 days before a trial version of SQL server expires?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~