Re: Access vs Oracle

On Sun, 13 Feb 2000 11:40:47 -0000,
Rohan Vaz <rohan_vaz_at_hotmail.com>
wrote in article <MPG.1310a89dbec34b9098968a_at_news.dircon.co.uk>:

> My users can manage and manipulate their data fairly well in
> Access (with Excel).
>
> However, the Oracle-based IT people are campaigning for a ban on
> the use of Access by users (mainly knowledge workers), instead
> they want the users to engage the Oracle team in building their
> 'applications' in Oracle - whilst at the same time saying that
> they cannot begin to look at any application for 12-18 mths!
  Tell them to either lead or get out of the way! Maybe tell them you'd like to meet with them to discuss the issue, but you're booked solid for the next 12-18 mths.

> My question is, how easy would it be for users to manipulate
> their data in Oracle instead of Access? Can they do that without
> reference to the Oracle team?

  The Oracle DBA will have to be involved, if for no other reason than to set up files and constraints and grant access permissions to users.

  Actually, it's sad that there is politicking going on. Oracle is a very powerful back end and it is possible to get the best of both worlds. Store databases on Oracle, and link to them from Access via ODBC. With "passthrough queries" from Access, you can let Oracle grind large quantities of data and return small result sets to Access. Access can handle the output formatting/display. This is the optimal combination. Do *NOT* kill the network by downloading hundreds or thousands of megs of data just to select one row.

  Oracle has PL/SQL, a programming language somewhat resembling BASIC and FORTRAN. The usual stuff like IF-THEN-ELSE, loops, etc. Insist on some of your people being allowed to load packages (functions and procedures) on Oracle to take advantage of PL/SQL.

--
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> http://www.waltdnes.org SpamDunk Project procmail spamfilters.
A picture is worth a thousand words; unfortunately, it consumes the bandwidth of ten thousand words. Received on Sun Feb 13 2000 - 18:50:30 CST