Re: Oracle and Java. Does Oracle know something some of us don't?

On Sat, 04 Jan 2003 09:30:41 +0000, Rauf Sarwar wrote:

> I hate to start another thread on this but I could not resist.
>
> There are some interesting posts in another thread "Java to die in
> 2003" about pros and cons of Oracle's integration with Java. One of
> the interesting thing mentioned in some of the posts is that Oracle is
> trying to push PL/SQL away and replace it with Java. Even I myself
> opposed the idea with a bold statement that "It was never Oracle's
> intention to replace PL/SQL with Java and Java is only there as a
> support to PL/SQL in whatever it cannot handle".
>
> Just for curiosity to see where Oracle stands on this issue, I thumbed
> through from current to some of the past issues of Oracle magazine.
> Although I did not realize this before but to my surprise, almost 80%
> to 90% of "Oracle Technology related" articles published by Oracle
> magazine within last few months are about Java, J2EE, EJB and all the
> other fancy Java related acronyms.
>
> In most current issue of Oracle magazine (Jan/Feb 2003), there is an
> article by Kuassi Mensah, "Simplify with Java stored procedure". Under
> "PL/SQL or Java" subheading, he/she writes "When you think of Oracle
> stored procedures, you probably think of PL/SQL. Oracle, however, has
> provided Java support in the database since Oracle 8i, to offer an
> open and portable alternative to PL/SQL for stored procedures.....".
> Entire article after this is about all the wonderfull things Java can
> do in Oracle... which to some part I agree.
>
> The thing that caught my attention above was "...open and portable
> alternative to PL/SQL for stored procedures". Is Oracle really trying
> to slowly sneak Java in to replace PL/SQL? I guess only Oracle knows
> the answer to that question. This is only one article... but the fact
> that Oracle magazine published it carries some weight.
>
> I hope I am not wrong in my assumption that "It was never Oracle's
> intention to replace PL/SQL with Java" but it looks like that Oracle
> knows something that some of us don't!!!
>
> Any thoughts.
>
> /Rauf Sarwar

With Oracle, and probably more so than with other vendors, you really must mentally separate Marketing from Development.

Oracle knows that Java speak wins the hearts and minds of more people than .NET speak. Besides, Java is a good common denominator across all platforms. Guess who's briething down their necks? That's right, Microsoft.
MS now not only has a database they also have applications software.

I believe that inside Oracle there are two kinds of people:

1. the old timers who grew up with PL/SQL and regard everything else as bad
2. enlightened people who realize that PL/SQL alone does not cut it.

So they went overboard and tried to have everyone run J2EE stuff inside of 8i. Which of course was doomed to failure. Now the idea is to just run Stored Procedures as Java, and only in cases where PL/SQL would look as a bad choice.

In fact, I believe that Oracle will actively pursue the middle tier as mostly Java. For middle tier PL/SQL doesn't make sense, but Java certainly does. What else? C, C++? Too hard, too difficult, to many cross-platform problems. And no contest for fast development in the .NET world.

There are a lot of people who'd like to see PL/SQL go away from Portal and have Portal code replaced by Java code.

Bottom line: there is no reason to believe that PL/SQL will go away. Nor will Java, unless somewhere down the road another trend will appear.

Look at Web Services: Had this been dependent on something besides .NET or Java, I bet Oracle would have supported it anyway. Why? Because everyone is talking about Web Services. To NOT support them means go out of business, even if the specs for complex WS aren't even done yet.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

dmz17 Received on Sat Jan 04 2003 - 18:11:57 CST