> Good developers can be passable DBAs if need be This assume a developer is not a DBA. Or as if you can't be a good one. I start with FoxPro. So databases is

> Good developers can be passable DBAs if need be This assume a developer is not a DBA. Or as if you can't be a good one. I start with FoxPro. So databases is always first for me... to the point that I "mockup" the app with the database schema first. So, I'm saying that for some people the database -> app is a straight, natural path. DBAs in the past was more about control the access to a central BD in a MAINFRAME. Modern RDBMS are very easy to administer and optimize. In fact, I think that learn Java, .NET or C++ is far more harder than learn how use a RDBMS in full...