Re: Need help to get started on Oracle.

Hey mate,

Disclaimer: I am an Oracle employee.

Oracle is the #2 software company in the world. It sells a lot of different products, the central product has always been its relational database management software (RDBMS) which (very simply) allows rows of data to be stored in tables for easy access and cross-reference. The RDBMS is frequently called the "server" and the newsgroup comp.databases.oracle.server is dedicated to it. The basic language for manipulating data is called SQL (Structured Query Language). The database server is a solid platform for application development, too - it comes with an Oracle proprietary language called PL/SQL which has been around for years and years, and more recently has started supporting Java. You can write procedures in either language and store them in the database itself. There are also many programming tools that work with the Oracle database server: the Oracle Developer Suite has Forms (for building GUI screens for data entry & query), Reports (powerful query/reporting tool), Graphics (draw charts etc. based on data from the database), Discoverer (user-friendly query/reporting tool). Also JDeveloper for Java programming. (see newsgroup comp.databases.oracle.tools for discussion about these tools).

Oracle also sells business applications, the "E-business suite" which has a large number of modules to fulfill different biz functions: Financials, Manufacturing, CRM, etc. These applications are built using the Developer Suite and the database server (of course).

Middleware: Oracle sells the Internet Application Server to handle many of the functions needed to deploy applications on the web.

Groupware: Oracle has software to run unified email / voicemail / messaging servers, database-managed file server, web online meetings.

Other stuff: Data warehousing and analytical software, software for wireless/mobile applications, etc etc etc yada yada

So, when you hear people say 'Oracle', they could be referring to the company, the database server, the tools or the business applications, depending on their perspective.

Others have already given you some good websites to visit - I hope the above has been helpful.

Martin Doherty

Atici72 wrote:

>Hi folks!
>
>I am a computer tech, and assistant network administrator. I've worked with all
>versions of Windows operating systems, Linux, Unix, and Novel. I've coded
>programs in C++, Pascal, and Assembly Language. So, it is very embarrassing for
>me to say that I don't even have the slightest clue about what Oracle is, what
>it does, and why it is used. Can anybody roughly give me some info in a few
>sentences about Oracle and direct me to good source to get me started on
>Oracle.
>
>Thanks.
>
>---
>Ryan Atici
>
>
>
Received on Mon Nov 25 2002 - 12:44:32 CST