Re: Basic Questions

"Sybrand Bakker" <postbus_at_sybrandb.demon.nl> wrote in message news:8pkq62153844po87rlfjf2ijue76t269mi_at_4ax.com...
> On Thu, 18 May 2006 19:49:56 -0400, "Rhino"
> <no.offline.contact.please_at_nospam.com> wrote:
>
>>I would like to get a little bit of hands on experience with PL/SQL,
>>Developer 6.0, and Report Writer on Oracle in the next few days.
>>
>>I'm very fluent with DB2 and many of its tools and techniques and pretty
>>functional with MySQL but have never used Oracle so I'm not sure what all
>>the different components of Oracle are. I'd like to install a basic
>>environment on my PC so that I can use the tools I mentioned but I don't
>>want to get bogged down in installing/configuring a bunch of stuff that
>>isn't relevant.
>>
>>Can anyone tell me what I need to install and where I can download trial
>>versions of the components I need?
>
> Developer 6.0 has entered the museum many years ago.
> If you want current software download Oracle 10g XE from
> http://otn.oracle.com (150 Mb dowload).
> There is still a thing called Internet Developer Suite, but in your
> suite that is probably overkill.
> XE comes with various new developer tools, Oracle is going to move to
> anyway.
>

While I wouldn't normally want to look at obsolete tools, this situation is a bit unusual.

I have applied for a job as a "Data and Information Specialist" and the description calls for "Advanced technical skills, especially PL/SQL, Developer 6.0 - Report Writer and Oracle database preferred". I cited my DB2 skills when I applied for the job and said that I was confident I could learn the Oracle tools quickly. I have been granted an interview for late next week but I'd like to really impress the employer by acquiring some basic familiarity with the tools they use before the interview.

Even if they are using obsolete tools, it would probably not be diplomatic for me to point that out at the interview - I can try to persuade them to modernize their tools if I get the job! - and I may not get any "brownie points" for having a working knowledge of a much newer tool set than they are using.

Therefore, two followup questions:

1. Are the tools they are using still available for download somewhere? If so, where? And what are all the different things I need to download? I know nothing about the bundling of Oracle so I don't know if I need to download the database engine and each of the main tools as separate entities or whether the whole kit and kaboodle is all bundled together.
2. If I were to download the 10g XE package you recommend and get basic familiarity with the tools there, how hard would it be to use the older tools that this employer has? Are the current versions of the tools just incrementally improved or are they profoundly different?

Oh, by the way, I want to install Oracle on a standalone Windows XP Professional workstation; I assume that has some bearing on what I should download.

Basically, I just want to install Oracle on my Windows box and use the Sample database (assuming there is one, otherwise I'll create one) to generate a few procedures and reports so that I can get familiar with the Oracle dialect of PL/SQL and with your reporting tools.

--
Rhino