Re: Is Forms 4.0 stable?

In a previous article, wiersma_at_discus (Fred Wiersma) says:

>Just finished installing Forms 4.0.12.1.10 and Reports 2.0.13.1.4. for MS
>Windows.

Me too.

>2) I want to install to a network drive directory h:\orawin. In a batch file
>that I run before entering Windows I substitute s: for h:\orawin i.e.
>C:\ subst s: h:\orawin
>
>so that everything is a bit more generic (more users will use this drive but
>will not connect it to h: ; the drive letter s: is reserved for Oracle Windows
>products).
>Problem: the installer refuses to install to a root directory (s:\)!
>OTS tells me that is because the root directory may not contain more than 114
>files. Yeah, great, but a) this is not really a root directory and b) I don't
>have 114 files in my root directory so what is the problem anyway. The
>installer is quite rigid. 'Solution' according to OTS: install to
>h:\orawin instead of s: . Yes, and all the Windows icons and oracle.ini file
>reference to h:\orawin instead of s: . Great for my general installation...
>Now I can manually change all these references. *Sigh*

   I have installed with a single oracle.ini file shared by all users. Individuals can override parameters in the common oracle.ini file by putting them before the ORA_CONFIG line in their win.ini file (not documented but it works!). I have also gotten fancy and gone into the <product>.map fines in \orawin\orainst directory to tweak the icons created by the installer. Users specify an ORACLE_WORK variable in their win.ini which will be the current directory used for all of the icons when they are created by the installer. Take a look if you want to do this yourself. The final item in each line is of the form "icon program ; icon current directory". You can reference any oracle.ini parameter by enclosing it in %percent% signs. (none of this is documented and upgrades will be a pain as I have to do it all over again...but it saves my developers much grief, and that's why editors have search-and-replace).

>3) The installer does not delete the old versions (it was an upgrade)! Why not?
>It would be a simple extra question.
>You have to tell the installer to delete the old products first before
>installing the new ones.

   I didn't have the release notes at the time and went ahead and upgraded without removing. Other than some wasted disk space no harm was done.

> *sigh* Also, the installer ADDS the Windows icons
>instead of replacing them. *sigh*

   This only happened to me the first time. On subsequent "restore icons" they are replaced correctly as long as you do not edit the icon or program group descriptions.

>Who designed this installation procedure?
  Let me tell you about the Oracle 5.0 installer some day. 8)

>PPPS In an earlier post someone remarked that Oracle Corp has versionitis i.e.
>too many versions in a short time. This is indeed hell for system managers.
>Will this ever change?

   What would you rather have? Bugs with no hope for a fix until "next year's release"? Putting up upgrades will always be our sorry lot in life.

   Now to install my newly arrived CDE tools for Sun...

--
   - Doug Harris
     Database Administrator,
     System Development Division,
     Statistics Canada              ## Standard Disclaimer Applies ##
--