newbie again... Completely puzzled

Okay, okay, I probably need to take a course or three on Oracle. Or even go to graduate school. On the other hand, I am a computer literate person, with some background in programming (C++, MFC, VB, Access), so you would think I could figure this out, but I am stumped. Maybe someone will be kind enough to answer a few basic questions, at least to get me oriented.

I have a Win98 system, and I ordered the trial version of Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition, release 3 (8.1.7). I've installed it. I can't get anything to happen. Now what follows is admittedly long, but if you are bored at work and looking to amuse yourself by humoring an idiot, perhaps you can address my questions...

What I'm expecting (based on Access and DBase experience) is to find an Oracle application that lets me create a brand new database, place it in a desired directory on my personal computer, and start building and playing with tables. I cannot find any such application. What I do find is this:

I purchased Oracle 8i for Dummies, which tells me to start with an application called DBA Studio. So I start DBA Studio, and enter the stand-alone mode of operation. In the book, there is already some kind of database tree displayed at the left. In real life, Oracle displays a dialog box asking me to either Add A Database Manually, or add selected databases from the local tsnnames.ora file in the directory c:\Oracle8i\Network\Admin.

To add a database manually, I would have to identify Hostname, Port Number, SID, and Net Service Name. I assume these have something to do with locating a database over a network connection, but I don't have access to any database on a network, and if I did, I wouldn't know any of these parameters anyway. Besides, I don't want a database over the network, I want it on my own computer.

Moreover, there are no databases listed in the tnsnames.ora file. Actually, there IS NO tnsnames.ora file in the indicated (\Admin) directory. In other words, if some kind of default database was supposed to be installed with this software, it has not been installed.

So, I go hunting around for an application that will let me create a database. I try:
* Everything under the Application Development folder. None of these
apps seem relevant, except perhaps SQL Plus. When I try SQL Plus, it asks me for a User, Password, and Host String. When I can't supply and of these, it bails on me. Remember, I've just installed this, so I haven't had any opportunity to create a user, password, or host string. In fact, at this point, I don't know how to create them or what they are for.
* SQL Plus Worksheet. This wants a Username, Password, and Service.
How is it that this application (Oracle) asks for passwords and usernames all over the place, when it didn't ask me to create a user name or passwork during installation, and I haven't created any databases?
* Enterprise Manager Console (this seems like a logical place to
specify a database...). I am immediately alerted that I must have at least one management server in place, and I am prompted to enter a name. Obviously this is a non-starter.
* I skipped all the apps in the Extended Administration Folder, since
that looked too scary.
* Tried the Enterprise Login Assistant and was spurned for not having
a wallet. My problem is actually that I do have a wallet, but I apparently don't have an Oracle database...
* Tried Net8 Assistant and didn't get very far with that.

• Aha! Found the Wallet Manager, and was able to create a wallet. Whatever that is.
• Went back to the Enterprise Login Assistant. Nope. No DEFAULT wallet exists. I guess my wallet wasn't good enough.

Basically, how the hell does one find an application here which lets me create a database, and stuff some tables into it, and then create some kind of pretty front end if I want to!? All this other stuff seems related to managing a database and database connections over a network, and to my mind that's a secondary task to just creating the d**n database in the first place.

I get the feeling that all I've acquired is some software for setting up network connections between databases that I can't even create. Can someone help a confused soul out here?

Thanks
Steve O.

P.S. I have an Athlon 1200 processor in my system. Even with that, some of these apps seem to respond awfully slowly when I click on menu options. Is Oracle really this slow? Received on Tue Nov 27 2001 - 23:59:29 CST