Database Reference
In-Depth Information
16.4 Summary and Concluding Remarks
Let us summarize what we have covered in this chapter:
•
Oracle is widely regarded as one of the world's leading RDBMS
suites. The product runs on all the major operating system platforms,
except OS-400, is marketed under five editions — Enterprise
Edition (EE), Standard Edition (SE), Standard Edition One (SE1),
Express Edition (XE), and Personal Edition (PE).
•
The Oracle suite includes a number of components. These
include (but are not confined to) Oracle Server, Oracle PL/SQL,
Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Database Configuration Assistant,
Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle SQL Developer, Oracle
SQL*Plus, and Oracle iSQL*Plus.
•
Oracle has some shortcomings relating to the component
integration, limited code generation, complex database creation,
and affordability.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings, Oracle is an excellent DBMS suite, and for this
reason, it is expected to continue to dominate the database systems arena well into
the foreseeable future. Oracle's recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems represents a
significant possession for the company. This means that we can expect to see greater
integration of Java-based interfaces in the Oracle products (something Oracle has been
working on for some time), as well as increased platform independence.
16.5 Review Questions
1.
What are the main editions of Oracle that are marketed?
2.
What are the main components of an Oracle suite? Briefly
discuss how these components are related.
3.
Identify some benefits and drawbacks of the Oracle suite.
16.6 References and/or Recommended Readings
[Couchman, 1999] Couchman, Jason and Christopher Allen.
Oracle Certified
Professional: Application Developer Guide
. New York, NY: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1999.
[Downes, 1998] Downes, Larry and Chunka Mui.
Unleashing the Killer App - Digital
Strategies For Market Dominance
. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998.
[Oracle, 2008] Oracle Corporation.
SQL Reference
.
http://www.oracle.com/technology/
index.html
(accessed August 2008).
[Shah, 2002] Shah, Nilesh.
Database Systems Using Oracle: A Simplified Guide to SQL and
PL/SQL
. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
