Re: Reports Background engine failures

Preston wrote:

> Oh, & we won't be spending any time figuring out how to connect a
> 'paleolithic forms tood to the currently supported database' as we
> don't use forms. If Reports 6i doesn't work with 11g, then obviously
> we'll switch to a reporting tool that does work when the time comes.
> That tool will most likely be an open source Java based product rather
> than Oracle though.

I have found that in my work, companies/developers rarely (rarely are able to) take advantage of what Oracle/MS/IBM has to offer in their given db because they want to be "database agnostic" (had interview day before yesterday where that exact phrase was mentioned).

They also (in the interests of database agnosticity) don't make use of even the basic features of rdbms's. I worked for a company which had a client base of *_HUGE_* companies in Britain (one which I worked on site for had a turnover of £3.8 billion and employs 32000 people) whose app ran on Oracle which didn't even make use of foreign keys - Imagine my surprise (two or three days into the place), querying dba_indexes, user_indexes &c.

*_AND_* this was their major ERM app!!!!!

I thought it was I who was being stupid. If you are thinking of moving to another reporting tool with Windows as the client, then I would recommend Delphi and their 3rd party reporting tools against whatever db you like. Do you have compelling reasons to stay with Oracle? As you say you are a small software house with cost-conscious clients - do you really need all its functionality? Many of the Open Source dbs have excellent feature sets for those who don't require Oracle's kitchen sink implementations.

For the benefit of those who bandy about (far too readily IMHO) that any db which is not Oracle is a "toy", I am not "dissing" Oracle - it just may not be the best solution for all business needs.

Paul... Received on Wed Aug 15 2007 - 18:41:57 CEST