Re: Do you use PL/SQL

On May 20, 1:18 pm, DA Morgan <damor..._at_psoug.org> wrote:

> I authored and teach the Oracle program at the University of Washington
> and I must agree with Frank van Bortel when he questions your
> qualification to teach the class. And my apology if the following seems
> a bit cruel... it isn't intended to be such.
>
> Several years ago I brought in a PhD Java programmer who was one of the
> authors of the Hibernate framework to teach one quarter with me. Truly
> a Java genius. But my students knew more about databases than he did and
> while they learned a lot of Java they class evaluation form after the
> quarter was brutal.

i'm not him. :-)

> Let me give you a short self-test to consider before you teach it.
> 1. When is it appropriate to commit inside of a loop?

If a procedure is meant to be atomic, that wouldn't make any sense.

> 2. When is it appropriate in 9i or 10g to use a cursor loop?

Do you mean regarding problems with locks and such?

> 3. When should production code be deployed with stand-alone functions
> and procedures?

Isn't this an issue that any software engineer would know about - the advantages of separate namespaces and information hiding? What's new here?

> If your answer to all three isn't ... "essentially never" ... reconsider.
>
> If you don't understand database concepts and architecture you should
> reconsider teaching the class. If you don't understand the difference
> between thinking in sets and procedural code you should reconsider
> teaching the class. My interpretation of your two questions is that you
> are wholly unqualified.

thanks for your opinion.

> Again: sorry if this is a bit harsh.

I appreciate your and Franks concern. I learn from books, as well as from other people's practical experiences. Books often cover theory well, but contain ideas that are just not practical. I get the practical side from asking people who have worked on it for a while. Even though I do I already have my own opinions regarding the questions I asked, I do think that asking these questions has lead to an interesting conversation here.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but I find it interesting when people who don't have some ability, or know of some oneelse who doesn't have an ability want to tell you that you can't do something. I take pride in my ability to learn anything very quickly. So, like the bumper sticker says, "lead, follow, or get out of the way" :-)

But, I do appreciate your opinion and your vast knowledge of Oracle. Thanks. Received on Tue May 22 2007 - 14:53:05 CDT