Re: Oracle8 & Forms3.0 (Official answer - long!)

From: <czetie_at_nospamus.oracle.com>
Date: 1997/11/06
Message-ID: <34628C0B.8BC_at_nospamus.oracle.com>


Since I happened to be passing through, (I don't normally hang out here), here is the OFFICIAL statement from the mouth of Product Management. This was sent to all supported customers as the desupport announcement for the old tools.

Executive Summary: 7.3 is supported, 8.0 is not. Note also that support for databases prior to 7.3 ended on the 31st October.

BTW, please do NOT treat this as an invitation to mail me personally with Forms questions! Much as I would like to help, I already have a full time job!

OK, here's the text:

ANNOUNCEMENT



Oracle formally announces revised Oraclemetals Support (formerly known as Customer Care Support) plans for Oracle V6 Toolset, Oracle Version 6 Pre-Compilers, and Oracle SQL*Net Version 1.

ANNOUNCEMENT DETAIL



Oracle announced the end of Customer Care Support for Oracle Version 6, effective December 31, 1995. To ease the migration from Oracle Version 6 systems, the initial releases of Oracle7 were designed to be compatible with the Oracle Version 6 tools and related products. With the anticipated end of Customer Care Support for Oracle V6, announcements for the end of Customer Care Support for some of the Oracle V6 related products and tools were made in 1995.

Oracle respects the commitment customers have made to Oracle, with the implementation of their systems using Oracle products. With the technological advances that are constantly being made, Oracle also understands the difficulty in customers? abilities to continually plan and implement their system upgrades to exploit what Oracle has to offer. With this in mind, Oracle announces revised Oraclemetals support end dates for the following products:

  • Oracle Version 6 Precompilers - Pro*Ada, Pro*C, Pro*Cobol, Pro*Fortran, Pro*Pascal & Pro*PL/I V1.4
  • SQL*Net DECNet, TCP/IP & SPX/IPX, Version 1
  • PL/SQL, Version 1
  • SQL*Forms 3/SQL*Menu5
  • SQL*Reportwriter, Version 1.1
  • SQL*Report, Version 1

Oracle provides the latest in information management systems as Oracle moves forward with the release of the Oracle Universal Server - Release 7.3, and the development of Oracle 8, and with the availability of tools, such as Developer/2000. The products listed above will not be certified with Oracle 8 or newer operating systems. Supported Oracle customers of these products are provided with product updates and migration offerings at no cost to allow the ability to exploit the latest technology that Oracle delivers.

Oracle has placed these products in a sustaining engineering mode and Oraclemetals support for these products are limited to Severity 1 and 2 fixes only. Customers must be on the following product releases in conjunction with the corresponding Oracle7 releases specified in the table below for continued Oraclemetals Support.

Product/Release    Oracle7        Oraclemetals        Oracle 7.3
  Supported       Release(1)       Support End         Certified
                                     Date(2)         Migration Path

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro*C V1.4 7.1.6, 7.2.3 October 31, 1997 Pro*C V2.2
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro*Pascal & 7.1.6, 7.2.3 October 31, 1997 Pro*Pascal & Pro*PL/I V1.4 Pro*PL/I V1.6
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pro*Ada, 7.1.6, 7.2.3 October 31, 1997 Pro*Ada, Pro*Cobol, Pro*Cobol & Pro*Fortran V1.4 Pro*Fortran V1.8
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL*Net DECNet, 7.1.6, 7.2.3 October 31, 1997 SQL*Net V2.3 TCP/IP & DECNet, TCP/IP & SPX/IPX V1.2 SPX/IPX Protocol Adapters(3)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PL/SQL 7.1.6, 7.2.3 June 30, 1998 PL/SQL V2 1.0.45(4) and through 7.3.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL*Forms 7.1.6, 7.2.3 June 30, 1998 Developer/2000 3.0.16(4)(5) and through 7.3.4(6) - Forms V4.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL*Menu 7.1.6, 7.2.3 June 30, 1998 Developer/2000 5.0.11(4)(5) and through 7.3.4(6) - Forms V4.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL*Reportwriter 7.1.6, 7.2.3 June 30, 1998 Developer/2000 1.1.14(4)(5) and through 7.3.4(6) - Reports V2.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL*Report 7.1.6, 7.2.3 June 30, 1998 Developer/2000 1.1.10(4)(5) and through 7.3.4(6) - Reports V2.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------

SUPPORT NOTES:


  1. 7.1.6 and 7.2.3 are the terminal releases for most platforms for Oracle 7.1 and 7.2, respectively. For those platforms that did not release 7.1.6 or 7.2.3, support for this product set will be available for the terminal release of the Oracle 7.1 & 7.2 releases and the terminal releases for the product components for each platform for which this applies.
  2. Oraclemetals support for these products will not be extended for those platforms which Oracle has already announced the end of Oraclemetals support for, such as the DOS platform. Any future announcements of the end of Oraclemetals support for Oracle products for an entire platform will apply to this product set as well and supersede this announcement.
  3. SQL*Net V2.3 is bundled with Oracle 7.3 releases. SQL*Net V2.1 and V2.2, bundled with Oracle 7.1.x and 7.2.x releases, will end Oraclemetals support on October 31, 1997.
  4. These products are only available in Oracle 7.1.x and 7.2.x bundles. These products are not included in the Oracle 7.3.x bundles, but will be certified and supported in a client/server installation for Oracle 7.3, the Oracle Universal Server using SQL*Net V2, through release 7.3.4. Those environments with no hardware clients will require the installation of a separate Oracle_Home for these products, linking them to the Oracle 7.3 database with SQL*Net V2.3. SQL*Net V1 is not supported against RDBMS release 7.3. Customers running Oracle 7.3.2.1 must apply the fix for BUG 360985 to run this configuration. This fix is included in Oracle 7.3.2.2 and subsequent Oracle 7.3.x releases.
  5. National Language Support (NLS) Asian Tools Release A4.3.2 will be supported on Oracle 7.2.3 and through Oracle 7.3.4 releases through December 31, 1997 only.
  6. Oraclemetals support for Oracle 7.1.6 and 7.2.3 will end on October 31, 1997. Customers should upgrade to Oracle 7.3.x for continued Oraclemetals support after October 31, 1997.

Extended Assistance Support for these products will be available for 3 years after Oraclemetals ends. Extended Assistance Support for these products provide for telephone and electronic support only, consisting of the following:

  • Answering customer questions
  • Providing workarounds, if possible
  • Providing customers with migration path information.

Extended Assistance Support for these products does not provide for the following:

  • Software error correction support
  • Backporting of fixes
  • Certification with supported products or newer operating system releases
  • Escalation Support or guaranteed response times or skill availability.

Due to these limitations, Oracle strongly recommends that customers plan and upgrade to the recommended migration path offers for the Oracle Universal Server - Release 7.3, prior to the end of Oraclemetals Support to maintain the highest level of support for their products and systems.

CUSTOMER ACTION



To request Developer/2000, please call (415) 506-1500 and route your call to Client Relations. Press 1 from your touch-tone phone, select option 4 for non-technical issues, then select option 3 for Customer Service/non-technical requests.

To request the Oracle Universal Server - Release 7.3, which includes the other product upgrades, please call (415) 506-1500 and route your call to the Media Group. Select option 4 for non-technical issues, then select option 1 for product updates.

One copy of on-line documentation is shipped with all orders. Additional copies can be ordered by calling Documentation Solutions Group at 1-800-252-0303 within the U.S.

For information concerning the Oracle Consulting Core Technologies Services, U.S. customers can call (800) 578-4672.

This service announcement is addressed to the Oracle Technical Contact of record within your company. Please ensure that this letter is made available to the appropriate personnel at your site. If you are not the individual within your company to whom this notice should be sent, please call (415) 506-1500 and route your call to Client Relations. Press 1 from your touch-tone phone, select option 4 for non-technical issues, then select option 3 for Customer Service/non-technical requests.


                                              Oracle WorldWide Customer
Support Received on Thu Nov 06 1997 - 00:00:00 CET

Original text of this message