Re: Is Oracle the worst-documented product of all time?

Hi! Seems we got some tempers raised here. My contribution, for what it's worth, is as follows;

1. Individual Oracle documents (i.e. the stuff that comes with the product) are excellent; well prepared, comprehensive, well structured, accurate.

   Having said that, at my site we invariably write our own internal    documentation on the vast majority of things we do with Oracle,    so we can find it easiest and it eliminates options we don't need    and wodges of information that doesn't apply to our installation.

2. Actually, there's no such thing as "Oracle"; the range of products

   (server, development tools, CASE, Web, Applications, specialist    products like video server) is too wide. The accessibility and    to an extent the quality of the documentation varies between    products and product areas; e.g. the Unix server documentation    is fantastic (do you know any other company that can correctly    document the installation of, what is it, a hundred or so ports    of its product onto virtually every flavour of Unix at different    revs of OS, and get it right down to the manufacturer's patch    numbers?). On the other hand, the Designer/2000 documents are    not so good, mainly - I suspect - because Oracle have had a lot    of trouble moving from 16 bit to 32 bit and keeping their product    stable (anybody _like_ writing for Windows 95?)

3. Most importantly; if you want to run a serious and complex Oracle

   installation (i.e. a big server, varied client side products,    use of programmatic interfaces, mission critical) like we do,    I think there is a critical mass of expertise spread across    a minimum number of people you have to have, with periodic    input from consultants and contractors, external training etc.    I speak from six years' experience on this; we run a hospital    information system (to my knowledge the biggest in-house    developed system in the NHS) and we have used FM, contractors,    consultants, external training and all sorts (except Oracle    Corp!). We still maintain a high level of technical knowledge    in house so the boss knows our suppliers aren't pulling the    wool over our eyes.

It's impossible (as the writers of "Oracle: The Complete Reference" found - it isn't, and couldn't ever be, and I bought the V5 version and have seen every one since) to write one book which will even start to cover every Oracle product, but I suppose there is a market for something like a generic "Start Here" document which at least tells you where else to look...

Last hint; please can Oracle get their act together with the online documentation? We are _all_ on Win95 now, but we keep getting sent stuff on CD-ROM (the Product Documentation Library) in Oracle Book, and a stern warning that this is not useable on 95, only 3.1. For goodness sake, convert it to HTML and put it on the same CD and send it us!

Cheers
Tom Cooke Received on Thu Jul 10 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT