Original Gripe - revisited

rewind

If you look at the original gripes listed on the root (rot) of this thread, you'll notice that Oracle themselves are solving some of these issues, as well as others mentioned.

Develop software, not at the command line: SQL Developer, written with the JDeveloper Framework. Free with support if you have current service agreement.

Develop java software, not at the command line, for accessing Oracle: JDeveloper. Free with support if you have current service agreement.

Cost? First, for developing software, most software is available from OTN (Oracle Technology Network) under development license. Second, for a free database there is Oracle 10g Express Edition (XE), which is "free to develop, deploy, and distribute". 4gb data / single proc / 1gb ram max utilization.

Develop web applications, not at the command line: Application Express (formerly HTMLDB), that is even included with 10gXE above. They have a conversion guide for Access databases, but future versions will provide an Access migration tool (statement of direction).

And yes, VARCHAR2 doesn't makr sense to you or I, but consider their customer base with millions of lines of code, paying millions of dollars to continue to be able to upgrade their database without ditching their current systems, allowing them to migrate at their own pace to more modern code.

I am not just some flamming Oracle idiot, as I have had many of the same gripes with them, but do realize that as of late, many of these issues are coming to a serious, and great conclusion. I myself am an Oracle DBA and find that their past lack of decent development tools was unheard of, especially for a company that provides enterprise software, you would think that they would have a 10-20k development tool, ready for throwing money at ;). But I do, now, even on my laptop have the XE database, JDeveloper, SQL Developer (I liked the project name of Raptor better) and find my free tools to be matching up pretty well against what other people have to offer. Mind you that the DBA tools are not in SQL developer yet, but they will be. And, like many of you, Enterprise Manager was a sickening sight before, but with 10g, and 10gR2 even that has got a beautiful, not perfect, feel to it, as well as lightyears more functional than the old OEM.

just my 2 cents.

ammoQ

SQL Developer is really nice! Too bad it doesn't work well with older
versions of Oracle, like 8.1.7. Some of our customers still use them.

Alistair_Wall

@rewind said:

And yes, VARCHAR2 doesn't makr sense to you or I, but consider their customer base with millions of lines of code, paying millions of dollars to continue to be able to upgrade their database without ditching their current systems, allowing them to migrate at their own pace to more modern code.

It is to maintain compatibility when the definition of VARCHAR changes: http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/sql_elements001.htm#sthref77