Re: a couple of simple questions

<snip>

I started in a similar way. A suggestion is to forget everything you know about MS Access. I think it teaches you bad habits :-) and start reading alot of Oracle documentation.

>1. Which product, if any, from Oracle would allow a beginner to
 start a
>database from scratch, creating tables, forms, reports,
 queries, etc...to
>learn the basics of databases?

Oracle is so big it depends on what you want to "specialise" in: DBA, programmer, web etc. Get the enterprise version if you can it has everything you need for a db. Get the documentation and read!!

>2. Is there a main management program (similar to Access) where
 you can
>basically perform all the functions needed to create and run
the database?

In Oracle 8 there is the Enterprise Manager? It does some stuff, but it is more powerfull to do it all in sql+. I used to think we are in the 21 century you need a decent GUI for all apps, but I now understand that this stuff just gets in the way. SQL is so simple which I think makes it powerfull. As "cool DBA" said in this group it is way cool to bang out some sql lines and get the same results. At least then you understand what you are doing

>3. If the answer to question one is yes, is there a free (or
 cheap) version
>that I could run on a single machine just for educational
purposes?

Maybe the other guys can help you with the rest of the Oracle products.

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