Re: A proper FAQ - Wish fulfillment

"Howard J. Rogers" <howardjr2000_at_yahoo.com.au> wrote in message news:pan.2003.03.09.23.43.37.951766_at_yahoo.com.au...
> I've wished we had a "proper" FAQ for a long time. Here's my contribution
> as a start. Further contributions welcomed (we can do it by email if you
> wish).
>
> 1. No-one who posts here knows your precise setup, or can guess it from
> the aether. So Please: EVERY post you make here should include the
> following minimum information:
>
> a) Operating System (eg, Win98, WinXP, Red Hat Linux 8, Solaris 2.6,
> whatever)
> b) Oracle Version (As detailed as possible: 8i will do, but 8.1.7.4 would
> be better)
> c) Hardware details (Pentium III, Pentium IV, 2GB hard drive, 200GB hard
> drive etc)
>
> 2. Before you even think of posting here, you should check out other
> sources of information, because the answer you are looking for might well
> be adequately described in these other places. Of particular relevance:
>
> a) http://tahiti.oracle.com -official Oracle documentation for every
> current supported version of Oracle
> b) www.google.com (Groups) - an archive of every post ever made to this
> newsgroup, including answers for common problems
> c) www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
> (The Co-operative Users FAQ) - a huge list of common questions (with the
> answers) as supplied by regulars to this newsgroup
> (d) http://technet.oracle.com - a rich source of varied information,
> including downloads of every current version of Oracle, for free, for
> every platform. You have to be a member, but membership is free, instantly
> granted, and they don't send spam.

I'd add www.orafaq.com which isn't an FAQ exactly but does have a bunch of useful stuff on it. and

http://metalink.oracle.com for those with support contracts.

> 3. Phrase your post's title appropriately. "HELP" doesn't cut it. It's too
> vague, and forces people to read the content before being able to
> determine a reply. "Sever Process with Process ID 287548 is running in an
> infinite loop trying to update a table which comprises 38 extents of 2MB
> each on locally managed tablespace which is 6GB in size, made up of 3 2GB
> files on Solaris" is probably a bit stupid too: concision is king.

Phrase your question appropriately, the more detail the better. It is possible to put too much detail into a question but this is not a common error.

>
> 4. Don't include every line of a post when you reply. It's good for the "I
> am the top volume poster" award, but not for the rest of us. Please don't
> top-post either (ie, stick your reply right at the top of the original
> post). If you do, your reply has little relevance to the original post and
> its context. Intersperse your reply throughout the original, quoting only
> those parts that you wish to reply to.

Don't post in HTML if you can avoid it either.

>
> 5. "RTFM" is not a helpful reply.

but a URL such as
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96533/tools.ht m#27586 is.

>
> 6. "RTFM" is a perfectly expected response to people who post here before
> having made the effort to consult the other sources of help mentioned at
> (2) above.
>
> 7. The Pentium IV bug only applies to 8i. Not 8.0, nor 9i.
>
> 8. Try to keep the personal information to a minimum. The fact that you
> enjoy has-been music from the 70's age of glam-rock is of little
> consequence. It tells us nothing about your problem, and provides little
> in the way of useful solutions. Data density is what we're after. The
> *pub* is the place for reminiscing. It's also the place for discussing the
> pro's and con's of malt whisk(e)y varieties. But not here.
>
> 9. An answer that consists of only questions isn't an answer.
>
> 10. An answer that consists of half-remembered commands from three
> versions ago without testing it on a current version isn't an answer.
>
> 11. Test posts don't belong here. (Try alt.test instead)
>
> 12. Every post gets archived. What you see here today gets read again in 5
> years' time (especially if newbies follow step (2) above). So blatant
> untruths are not just going to confuse a single user.
>
> 13. If "curmudgeonly" is your middle name, try and live up to it somewhere
> else.
>
> 14. The good guys (in alphabetical order) are Steve Adams, Norman Dunbar,
> Jonathan Lewis, Thomas Kyte, Nuno Suto. What they say carries weight. It
> doesn't mean they don't make mistakes, though. Despite occasional rumours,
> they are actually human.

You can tell a good guy by the degree to which they give evidence for their reply

> 15. DBAs aren't universally male. So there are good gals too.
>

Absolutely.

> 16. Oracle databases cannot be compared with DB2 ones, SQL Server ones or
> any other ones. They are not better or worse: just not comparable.
> So please don't try. Flame wars inspired by such posts should be dampened
> down by the judicious application of the principle: 'don't feed the
trolls'.
>
> 17. Rule out any possible replies that can't apply to you. If your problem
> might be solved by a shutdown, but your database is in production and
> can't be shutdown, for example: tell us. We won't then propose something
that
> is totally inapplicable in your circumstances.
>
> 18. OCP is a qualification you can get. It exists. There's not much that
> can be done about that. Please don't ask anyone to comment on its
> usefulness, it's relevance or the accuracy of exam questions. They're
> *exam* questions: whatever the answer, it usually rarely applies in the
> real world, so live with it.
>
> 19. Enjoy Oracle. It's like a crossword puzzle: the more effort you put
> in, the more answers you start getting out. Expecting it to be easy is not
> the way forward.

I'd add

1. If you want to know why a query is slow then post
2. the query
3. the table/index definitions
4. the explain plan.
5. There is no autoincrementing datatype in Oracle. You need to create a sequence and a before insert row level trigger. For example

create table t(id number,description varchar2(50));

create sequence seq_t start with 1 increment by 1 cache 50;

create trigger trg_i_t
before insert on t
for each row
begin
select seq_t.nextval into :new.id from dual; end;
/

c) Use the appropriate newsgroup for your post

.marketplace for adverts/positions wanted
.tools for tools related queries (forms/developer/reports)
.server for RDBMS queries
.misc for anything else.

d) Bashing products does not give the impression of a professional approach. Just because microsoft produce something doesn't mean slagging it off is appropriate.

e) If you want to start learning oracle download or order the enterprise version from technet, and use it under the technet license. The same goes for tools.

f) The following books are the most frequently recommended. 1. expert one-on-one oracle (for the Developer) Tom Kyte. 2. practical oracle 8i (for the DBA/Designer). Jonathan Lewis.

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK