Re: [HELP] How to set up DBI for Oracle?

John Doe wrote:
>
> I downloaded DBI from CPAN, and DBD for Oracle (DBD-Oracle-1.12). The
> DBI README said Tk is needed, so I downloaded that (could not get it
> to build, but found a binary at sunfreeware.com).
>
> I just want to query Oracle tables from Perl scripts! Why do I need
> Tk (which is for X Windows)?

You need Tk if you want to have a graphical interface to your database.

And Tk is not just for X Windows... there are versions of it for unix/X, for Windows, for Mac, and there might even be one for plan9/8½.

(X is unix's windowing system, 8½ is plan9's windowing system)

> What do I need to just query textual data? I
> am using Solaris and HP-UX.

You probably don't need it.

> I have set up all kinds of stuff Unix (servers, compilers & apps), but
> this has me *stumped*! I've read the README's. What did I miss? The
> guy I spoke to at Oracle sales (1-800-ORACLE1) said to download ODBC
> from otn.oracle.com, but the O'Reilly book says DBI is easier than
> ODBC. (That book is about using DBI but not setting it up.)

The folks at Oracle want to chain you to their product. If you use DBI, it's easy to switch to another database backend. If you use ODBC, then it's difficult to switch to another database backend. They're not stupid, they just want your money.

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