Re: should initial = next?

On Thu, 8 Feb 2001 06:35:27 +1100, "Howard J. Rogers" <howardjr_at_www.com> wrote:

>
>I'm obviously making the point too subtly! I *have* actually hacked around
>in sql.bsq, and you're right: It's not that hard. But have you read most
>of the posts on this newsgroup? Are you honestly suggesting we recommend
>open slather on that file??

Hmm, soapbox mode on:

Interesting. If you allow me a side-track: many years ago, in the Compuserve ORACLE forums (fora?), I published how to export by tablespace. At the time this was a big issue in everyone's mind. Chris Wooldridge actually acknowledged mine was a viable way of doing it, without too much risk. Yet I got tons of private e-mail at the time, warning me that I was divulging "dangerous techniques" to an "unknowing public", yadda yadda. And the whole thing was snuffled. A few months later, a commercial product came out employing a very similar technique.... Anything else I say would be too obvious.

But coming back to this. I'm fully aware that it should not be attempted by the "common run-of-the-mill part-time SQL Server DBA dabbling in ORACLE as a side activity". Serves him/her right if they get into trouble for playing with this. I'd dare say they'd get into trouble regardless. I even suggest they'd would be in trouble to even *understand* what the heck are we talking about. After all, it's not in any of the "multimedia-rich" screens they so love. And we all know plain text reading (outside of a 3D-box) is not their strongest point...

For the more common mortal dba, this would be an interesting side-line, to be tried/researched/investigated at some later stage or even discussed with the "gurus" at the next OUG meeting. Ie, bugger all importance with no serious consequences. They just backup daily, defrag weekly, get the money at the end of the month and live and let live.

For the true afficionado, this wouldn't be news. But it would be a nice incentive for further experimentation. After careful research and discussion, of course. If they didn't do so, they'd stop being afficionados very soon, or someone would stop them.

For the "Steve Adams" class, it would be "ho-hum". And even though I consider myself a bit "adventurous" when it comes to dba work, I must admit some of the stuff publicly available in his site makes the hair at the back of my neck stand up. I know the fella knows his stuff and I trust him, I just don't trust me!

But I know enough to stop when I hit my limits, unless I'm just dabbling or playing around in non-critical databases. IOW, done sensibly by a sensible person, nothing wrong with it.

All this to say I don't see a problem about talking this sort of stuff in this NG. Dunno what others think, but I'm open as usual.

Ooops, I just fell off the soapbox...

>Now I know that what Oracle *does* recommend is frequently mystifying in its
>lunacy, but ...
>

ROFL! Cheers
Nuno Souto
nsouto_at_bigpond.net.au.nospam
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/the_Den/index.html Received on Thu Feb 08 2001 - 03:00:31 CST