Re: oracle query questions

Comments embedded
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:39:38 GMT, "Paul Linehan" <plinehan__A_at_T__yahoo__D.OT__COM> wrote:

>
>
>DA Morgan wrote:
>
>
>> I read your opinion and respectfully disagree.
>
>
>I read yours to the OP and (respectfully) disagree
>with the approach you took.
>
>You wrote (amongst the thought-provoking SQL questions,
> - part of your course?):
>
>> Why would anyone learn an obsolete product?
>
>
>Maybe this person has no choice? If the OP wants to
>learn SQL, then there are many free and Open Source
>products which will go a *_long_* *_long_* way to
>teaching somebody SQL.

Oracle 10g XE is completely free. Objection waived.
>
>
>> SQL is not generic. What works in Oracle, especially 8i, will not
>> work in other products and is nearly worthless. No one learns RDBMS
>> or SQL as a hobby ... it is learned withing the context of being a
>> job skill.
>
>
>Or a university course? I would argue that if somebody
>wants to learn SQL, then Oracle is not a good system,
>all this (+) rubbish for outer joins for a start.
>

Wrong again. INNER JOIN, OUTER JOIN, LEFT OUTER JOIN and other crap turn any ordinary SQL statement in an unreadabl;e mess.
>
>> If it takes equal effort to learn 10gR2 or 8i then learning 8i is
>> of no value. Would you teach someone rub sticks together who was
>> trying to learn how to start a backyard BBQ?
>
>
>But we don't know that 10gR2 is as easy, do we? Maybe
>downloading the latest version of Firebird or PostgreSQL
>(both under 15MB) could be as good as any Oracle release,
>and also conform better to standard SQL, which for a job
>would be better - no?
>

If you look at marketshare Oracle is much more a standard compared to any toy product you will ever promote here. For a job you should either learn (God forbid) Sqlserver, DB2 or Oracle, the other 'databases' will be obsolete soon.

>
>Anyway, I'm not giving out here, I'm just saying that
>maybe there are better things to be saying than just
>"upgrade to Oracle XXRyy". Maybe looking at other
>RDBMS's might be better suited to the OP's needs?
>

Why? Do these other products actually support technologies which are being used in corporate IT? Or do you promote Corporate IT should downscale to the level of a hobby shack?

>
>However, if you're talking jobs and careers, then Oracle
>(and the latest version thereof) is the best place
>to be as I've found out to my cost!
>
>
>Paul...
>

-- 
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA