Re: Opinions on Oracle Reports 2.5 ?

Darin Brown <drbrown_at_one.net> wrote:

>Let me preface this by saying I think there is significant room for
>improvement in Reports 2.5, so I am not defending the product,
>however... Many, many people would find it WAY MORE COMPLEX to write
>even simple reports in PRO*C. Some of the many issues I can think of:
 

>- A formatting nightmare
>- Page breaks and different sized paper
>- Ability to print both portrait, landscape
>- Page numbering (how many records fit on a page - printer specific)
 

>My guess is that people who are very knowledgeable in PRO*C may like
>writing reports in PRO*C, however, most would probably discard Oracle
>Reports 2.5 & PRO*C and use some other reporting product.

We found Oracle Reports to be unwieldy and cumbersome. We really did not have much need for fonts and graphics.

So, we have developed our reports in Perl 5.001m with DBD and DBI for Oracle ( OraPerl ).

It is MUCH simpler than PRO*C, MUCH more powerful than Oracle Reports 2.x.

Formatting is a breeze, page breaks require a little programming, but not much, choosing portrait or landscape is simple. It's fast.

Perl is easy enough to learn that we've had several consultants pick it up well enough to work on reports.

Jared Still, Oracle DBA
RxNet, Division of Value Health
"All opinions are mine, not my employers" jared_at_valleynet.com Received on Wed Jul 10 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST