Re: HELP! Default date format in SQL*Plus isn't dd-mon-yy!

"R" <R_at_R.R> wrote in message news:R3o7a.346663$Yo4.12259846_at_news1.calgary.shaw.ca...
> > > I'm finding Oracle to have the most inconsistent command structure that
> I've
> > > ever seen!
> > What's wrong with it?
> > That command line says that there are (or might be) several ways of
> altering
> > a session and setting variable is just one of them.
> > Therefore the "ALTER SESSION SET ..." makes sense.
>
> It just seems to have no structure... sometimes SET needs an "=" symbol to
> assign a value, sometimes not. The BREAK command separates its parameters
> with "ON" instead of commas. When insert data into multiple tables at one
> time you can't use the native column names... you must specify alias' for
> them. To clear the format on a column it's "COLUMN CLEAR..." but to clear
> all columns its "CLEAR COLUMN"

Well, the column command does a lot more things for columns and the clear command can clear lot of other things. Personally I think that this is in keeping with SQL. I don't like some sql bits for the same reason as you but I'd rather see consistence in the inconsistencies (in the hope that it will become clear to me in time) that have two different conventions which may or may not be consistent themselves.
Sound's stupid, but I'm sure, depending on what you want you can always select the right command and see where it has advantages in a specific situation.

>
> Finding any kind of help on the Oracle website is just insane.
Why? log in to metalink, type in some keywords for your query and read the results. Never had a problem with this.

> With all the
> icons that the Oracle install puts into my start menu it would make sense to
> include some kind of command reference
Remember, oracle is a BIG application with lots of stuff in it. If you don't neet all the goodies, then maybe oracle isn't right for you. It's designed to be powerful for large applications. It's not designed to be easy to use with one database with a couple dozen tables, no replication and vanilla sql. That would be akin to using SAP to manage your contents of your fridge.

Have you considered mysql? I've always found it sufficient for small fry stuff like homegrown bug tracking systems or to manage board and component prices for our department.

> Oracle documentation is worse than
> Microsoft documentation!

You *have* loaded the index for the pdf docs? You *do* know about shift-ctrl-f in the acrobat reader?

Greetings!
Volker Received on Thu Feb 27 2003 - 07:54:17 CST