Oracle tools vs PL/SQL

I am very new in trying to understand/evaluate Oracle. Pardon my lack of Oracle understanding.

1. PL/SQL is Oracles 4GL ??? procedural language. How old is it and would an application be considered "current" in technology to use it?
2. How does this procedural language compare to the likes of PROGRESS or other 4GL procedural languages>
3. What products (distribution, financial or distribution) exist in the market using PL/SQL? Give an opinion of each and any other insight that may be helpful i.e. market acceptance/perception, Oracles acceptance/perception, strength in the marketplace etc.
4. Assuming PL/SQL isn't the latest (maybe bad assumption) what OO tools does Oracle have that would replace PL/SQL?
5. I've been doing some reading regarding 2 tierd vs. 3 tierd RDBS or 2 diminsional vs. 3 diminsional (nested) RDBS's. I would like some insight on where Oracle, it's users etc. view the Oracle RDBS.
6. In a Client/Server world, what would be considered the acceptable client configuration to run an Oracle application (CPU, memory and disk)? I know that disk is dependent on the number of apps that are loaded on the client. Any insights on the size of the database server for say 64,128 and 256 users? I'm familar with the IBM RS6000 and HP9000 line of computers.
7. Are there any limitations on the number of indexes in an Oracle database? Database size?
8. Does Oracle provide the capability to actually store binaries, sound and video in the database or does the database point to these data types?
9. Oracle Power Objects. What are they and how will they be utilized in the future development of Oracle products?
10. How is Oracle's price perceived in the marketplace?

Thank you for taking time to respond. I may in fact think of other questions.

Stanton L. Call
Call Business Systems, Inc.
455 East 400 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-364-7007

stan_at_cis.com Received on Thu Feb 15 1996 - 00:00:00 CET