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Re: Is Oracle the worst-documented product of all time?

From: Richard Burton <rburton_at_rohms.com.NOJUNKMAIL!>
Date: 1997/07/09
Message-ID: <33c3c238.3341194@news.icorp.net>#1/1

On Wed, 09 Jul 1997 11:19:51 +0100, Steve Phelan <stevep_at_no-spam.pmcgettigan.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>Andreas Dunker wrote:
>
>> That's the point! Support and Training is very good. That means:
>> You buy a database for several thousand Dollars. And then you
>> have to pay an extra amount, so that you can use the database.
>> I've worked for several years with Informix. You can use it
>> without an extra training - even if you are a beginner - with
>> just the shipped manuals. But this is nearly impossible with
>> Oracle.
>
>Thank goodness you are not working for my company (well, thankfully I
>own it, and you wouldn't have got past the interview with this sort of
>attitude...)

That's ok Steve. You probably couldn't afford me anyway. <g>

What exactly is wrong with this attitude anyway? I personally think Oracle's documentation is lousy and I cited numerous references to back up my impression. And every day I work with the system, I come across more examples of disorganization. Tolerating this isn't the mark of a 'good consultant.' Quite the contrary IMO.

Here's another beautiful example: It seems that under NT, the 'init.ora' file is actually called 'initorcl.ora' even though within the file itself, it claims to be 'init.ora'! Why would they do this? It makes no sense!

>Look, to get back to what we've been trying to tell you: Oracle is a
>large and sophisticated product, so get some training and/or some
>consultancy - it really won't kill you, take my word for it - and buy
>the Oracle Press books (if you REALLY want to LEARN, that is?)

I contend that the Oracle Press books are even worse than the online documentation - I've already cited examples of this. Your only argument is a blanket defensive posture.

>Your one months experience of Oracle on your own with just the Oracle
>Documentation CD ROM and no hardcopy manuals IS NOT ENOUGH ALONE for you
>to be undertaking what you seem to be undertaking, an 'award winning
>software developer' (your words, not mine) or not.

In the case of Oracle, you may be right. In the case of just about any other software product or system I've ever experienced, from Novell, AutoCad, 3D Studio, C++, dBase, FoxPro, Clipper to Informix, Sybase, MS-SQL and others, this wouldn't be the case.

>Now, which bit didn't you understand?

The part about whether there is actually anything substantive which justifies your arrogance on this issue. Received on Wed Jul 09 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT

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