It's not too uncommon I run into code in other languages where I just don't understand what it does, or to write code myself that behaves in ways that surprise me. That almost never happens in SQL.
Even a big hairball of a query just takes time to figure out (unless a database-specific function with odd behavior is used).
That JavaScript framework that takes a year to understand will no longer be used in 7 years. SQL is going to be here forever and learning it is useful your whole career.
Other common entries on this list of forever tools: regular expressions, emacs, bash/shell scripting, excel, probably more I’m forgetting.
Devs always push back on the suggestion to learn something like excel (actually learning it, not just clicking around), but when they first start they really underestimate how often it’s the tool the business speaks and feels comfortable giving feedback on technical questions in.
Surely there is a lot more nuance for having a nicer database query language than comparing it to JS frontend practices.
SQL is something that'll stick for a long time, but I support attempts from people that don't want to let SQL be the endgame.
Of course don't go around deploying highly experimental shiny things on production! :P
Yes, but as often as not business people end up using Excel as a glorified text editor with built-in tabular formatting. Some of the spreadsheets I've been handed by project stakeholders would make 90s-era pre-CSS HTML using tables for formatting look clean and simple by comparison.
After writing applications in "4GL" sql tools early in my career, I've spent the entirety of the rest of my career trying to avoid writing SQL or having anything to do with the inner guts of those gigantic global variables known as relational databases.
I wholeheartedly agree that engineers massively underestimate the power of Excel.
Nothing seems more ephemeral than JavaScript framework du jour.
Oh yes, many more: Java, JCL & COBOL, Windows Forms, PhP, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Perl, Visual Basic, IIS, SSIS, Ruby on Rails, and so on and so forth.
Maintaining enterprise software is a special circle of hell reserved for developers. Just sayin'.