Oracle 8i EE SDE extensions on 8i

Reading the documentation, you find that extensions like "Spatial" or "Visual Information Retrieval" are specific for Oracle8i Enterprise Edition; and I don't understand if they're included in the Oracle 8i (standard edition) distribution CD for NT.
If so, is this just a marketing choice, or it is impossible to use SDE in Oracle8i (standard)? I can't believe it...

A second question about SDE: I don't understand which direction will Oracle adopt with regard to the Spatial Data Extension. Anybody knows if Oracle will implement some "GIS engine" (in Java, maybe), or Oracle will remain eternally just a repository of spatial data?
In this case, where can I find script (PL/SQL) or procedure (in Java) to do some spatial-data processing and query?

Thanks in advance,

                   Alessandro