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

Richard Burton wrote:

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

> 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.
>

No, my defense is the large number of people in the marketplace who find the books very, very good. If you follow this news group for more than five minutes you'll see that.

> >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.
>

That is complete rubbish - and exactly why a company like mine would not employ you.

I have used Sybase and C++ quite extensively over the past 10 years (along with Oracle, UNIX, Novell Netware and NT, and PowerBuilder). I have also been in the position of having to train and consult for a variety of companies on these products: I have always worked with skilled IT professionals.

Now, if you are claiming that Oracle, Sybase, C++, etc. can be learnt in one month just by flicking through the support CD ROMs then I'm afraid we are going to have to disagree. I have never - repeat, never - found ANY person (myself included) who could learn ANY of those products in such a manner and be *properly* productive. Most of my clients have been large multi-nationals, and the thought of letting someone loose on their IT infrastructure with your poor level of training would be unthinkable - and with good reason.

Still, if you don't like the Oracle Manuals, the Oracle Press books, the Oracle Training option, the Oracle Consultancy option or the thought of some third-party Training or Consultancy then I really don't see anyway for you to go. And bitching about the Oracle documentation and ignoring all the replies - some very good - that you have been given in this newsgroup isn't helping you at all.

Best of luck with Oracle...

Steve Phelan.

> >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 Thu Jul 10 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT