Re: Oracle7

In article <288gvb$1bq_at_senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> stevew_at_athena.mit.edu (Steven L. Wertheim) writes:
> In article <CDxFCq.At3_at_news.Hawaii.Edu> ktsuji_at_uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
> (Kevin Tsuji) writes:
> >
> >
> >Hey, anyone here doing development with Oracle7? We're looking for a
 Client/
> >Server Relational DB system and given the fact that all I really have
 is
> >propaganda material from this very, very marketing-intensive
 corporation --
> >
> >I need to know what sets Oracle apart from other products such as
 Sybase,
> >Informix, IA, etc... I've heard from colleagues, that Oracle is slow
 and that
> >the company tends to release software without enough testing. Also,
 that the
> >company is relentless in pushing its clients to purchase the latest
 version
> >of its software.
> >
> >Can someone out there who have evaluated Oracle7 and other products
 please
> >comment. Any good recent articles regarding this topic matter?
> >
>
> Since you posted to the Mac group you should know that Oracle7 is only
> available for the Workgroup Server 95 (a specially configured Quadra 950
> running A/UX). At least this was the situation at Database World in
 June.
> The Oracle rep there told me that it did not depend on the special
 hardware in
> the WS 95 and Oracle7 should work on all 68040 machines. However the
 decision
> to port to System 7 and market it more widely had not been made at that
 time.
> If you are only using Macs as clients, this need not concern you. The
 new
> versions of the client tools for Mac will work with a non Mac Oracle7
 server.
>
> Perhaps someone from Oracle can comment. Will there be an Oracle7 for
> Maintosh system 7? What machines will it run on?
>
> No hard data for your other questions, just some impressions...
>
> I have been an Oracle for Mac user for over two years. In general I am
 a
> satisfied customer. Yes, Oracle markets agressively, that's why they
 are #1.
> I feel that staying reasonably current is important in order to get the
> benefit of new features and the best support. To say the software
 supplier
> wants you to upgrade is not really a criticism. All software companies
 do. Of
> course, you don't want to be the first on your block to upgrade and
 Oracle was
> criticized for releasing version 6 too soon. My impression is that they
 were
> much more careful this time and the Oracel7 release is going more
 smoothly.
>
> Some people still believe that all relational databases are slow. These
> people either 1) have not paid attention for ten years or so or 2) are
 paying
> so close attention that they believe the hype being generated by the
> object-oriented DBMS folks. Oracle is not any slower than the other
> relational players. They all periodically claim to pass each other in
 the
> performance bencmarks. Unless you are the type who does a lot of
 database
> tuning, the performance differences will probably be minor.
>
> Comparisons such as you requested are regularly posted to
 comp.databases.oracle
> Check it out. I am cross-posting.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Steve
>
>
>

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> Steven L. Wertheim, Ph.D.                      Internet: stevew_at_mit.edu


> P.O. Box 390915                               Voice-net: (617) 547-4730

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        I'm using ORACLE7 on the Workgroup Server 950, and I must say - I'm not
impressed. I'm a MacApp programmer with a SYBASE background, and I'd take SYBASE
over ORACLE any day.

        My number one complaint is that the ORACLE7 Client Tools don't support C++. If
you notice their OCI example, the entire thing is written in main(). I have yet to figure out
how to keep the login, while passing it from one method to the next. As a result, I'm
wasting valuable seconds logging in every time I want to make a query. I'm open for
suggestions to this problem.

        SYBASE kicks ORACLEs butt when it comes to stored procedures. SYBASE is
easier to use and more functional. We can't get a PL block to return multiple rows or
create a temporary table in ORACLE.

        Lastly, the Workgroup Server is just plain a bad idea. It has the unstableness of a
Macintosh and the intolerence of UNIX. If you have to do a hard reboot, you crash
partitions. If the electricity goes out, you crash partitions. Luckily, UNIX can usually fix
the errors, but it still takes time and aggravation.

Laura S. Roberts
Information Management, Inc.
One Decatur Towncenter
150 E. Ponce De Leon Avenue
Suite 430
Decatur, Georgia 30030
(404) 377-4840
laurar_at_infoman.com Received on Tue Oct 05 1993 - 16:52:09 CET