I like that response - also more money.

I am working on an Oracle to MS-SQL migration now and really tried to get the vendor to support IRIS SQL but they won't consider. I find it particularly odd given at least a third of their customers already have an IRIS instance. Too bad Intersystems doesn't have a "MS-SQL" emulation mode. I would so love to speed test against MS-SQL directly. I know in generic SQL projects, IRIS easily beats both on the same hardware and at a fraction of the cost.

I would be curious to see this same test using pure Object script (M) and globals.

If you are a visual learner, YouTube is a cornucopia of free knowledge. Depending on the subject, there are also a multitude of free online college courses from major institutions such and MIT. It really depends on the subject and your learning style. And of course there is also ChatGPT (or similar) which make excellent tutors.