DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_ALERT questions

We are thinking about using the DBMS_PIPE and/or DBMS_ALERT for synchronizing processes (rather than polling for work/changes), and I have some questions. The rough idea is to have triggers that either send a message down a pipe or signal an alert to indicate that some other process should wake up and do some work. Environment is Unix Server + Some unix clients + some DOS clients, NOT using SQL*NET.

1. Is this a stable feature in oracle? I.E. might it go away in a future release. Since the comments in the .sql (rdbms/admin/dbmspipe.sql and rdbms/admin/dbmsalrt.sql on our Sun os 4.1 system) say dont use things starting with ORA$, implying that oracle uses them, I would guess it is.
2. Does anyone have any positive or negative comments about doing things this way?
3. Are there any other approaches that we might want to investigate for asynchronus signalling.

Thanks In Advance
Cary O'Brien
cobrien_at_access.digex.net Received on Tue Sep 13 1994 - 16:21:37 CEST