Irratic PL/SQL behaviour

Problem:

Working with PL/SQL in Oracle 7.3.4 on Sun Solaris system

Have been building relatively large packages to perform a complex task.

Apparently as the size of the package increases, one reachs a point where the package does not perform correctly. Typical behaviour: Using SQLProgrammer in debug mode and following the code execution, lines of code are skipped by the debugger. This results in no exceptions or breaks in operation, but the skipped lines are not executed.

Without the debugger -- calls to the stored procedure from within a java application or using a stand alone PL/SQL package, the same result is obtained -- the skipped code portion is reproducable.

More interestingly, if the function which malfunctions above is executed separately, it proforms as intended and correctly.

Obviously, this is a problem.

Is there anyway to solve the problem without moving to a new version?

Additional information:

In looking at user_object_size, the packages are 1000 to 4000 in what ever units it is measured.

A couple typical packages are:

lines           characters       user_object_size
                                 units
2000            89,000           4000
1700            48,000           3000
1600            67,000           1000

I of course like large variable and function names. I generally pass parameters rather than use globals. I have written the code with as many functions as possible to reduce duplicate coding.

Any reasonably serious advice would be appreciated.

Michael Krolewski
FSA

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