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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> Re: Java vs PL/SQL
Hi Luc,
> I am looking for documentation explaining the difference between coding
> stored procedures in Java versus in PL/SQL.
Osborne/Oracle press have released a book on SQLJ, which is quite good for
describing how to embed Java within objects and stuff in the database, in
similar ways to PL/SQL. You might be able to see this here:
=>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072121602/qid=958598710/sr=1-1/102-1716484-5600866
It only gets three out of five for a rating, but might be of some help. It's helped me a lot understand exactly what Oracle Corporation are trying to do, to get Java into their core products. Though I suspect one hundred and one departments within Oracle, have 101 separate plans.
> What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?
Ah, the 69 billion dollar question! :-)
I'm currently learning Java from an excellent book, Beginning Java 2, by Ivor Horton. It is simply superb. He covers every single aspect of Java in over a 1000 pages, in an enormous book-long tutorial, which I'm sure when I've finished (as a grey-haired 89 year old) will be a tremendous reference. He has 40 major sections, going from datatypes, up to Enterprise topics, Databases, SQL, and JDBC. I'm on about section 19, Output, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it (because I'm very sad), despite having previously been very sceptical of Java technology. So why am I rambling on about this? Well, I think in questioning the advantages and disadvantages of PL/SQL vs. Java, I suspect there will be as many answers, as there are people with an opinion. But going from what I've learned from Ivor so far, 4WIW, I think PL/SQL is on the long slow road to disappearance, though, if COBOL/CICS/DB2 is anything to go by, this could be a very very long road. But Java is the future, certainly as far as Oracle corporation is concerned. I don't think PL/SQL will get anything other than bug fixes from now on. I've just spent two years with Oracle corporation as a fly-by-night DBA contractor, and nobody there mentioned PL/SQL once, except the odd web application server developer. Everyone else spent the whole time talking about 8i and Java, Java and 8i, oh, and did I mention Java? :-)
Networks, OS independence, thin clients, Palm Tops up to Sparcfires, object orientation, Raw Iron (whatever happened to Raw Iron?). I still think Perl and Python will eventually take the rest of the programming world apart, with an Open Source database also eating into Oracle and taking it apart too, unless Larry E. eventually makes the Oracle server go Open Source (betting: 2005 - remember, you read it here first), but in the meantime, given a proprietary choice, I'd get Java, rather than PL/SQL onto page one of my resume. Could this be the real advantage of Java over PL/SQL? Forget technical arguments. Follow the money. Currently in the UK, if you say you're an Oracle-PL/SQL developer you'll get about X pounds an hour. If you say you're an Oracle-Java developer, you'll get X + (X/4) pounds an hour. This, I suspect, is the real advantage. Follow the money.
Rgds,
AndyD
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