Q&A

Q Oracle Corporation has released Oracle8. Are SQL, PL/SQL, and the Oracle development tools still supported in Oracle8?

A Absolutely. Oracle8 supports SQL, PL/SQL, and the Oracle development tools. Rather than replacing features that are currently found in the Oracle RDBMS, Oracle8 will eventually expand existing capabilities with user-defined datatypes, inheritance, a built-in Java Virtual Machine, and many other features.

Q What kind of support for Java is Oracle planning to provide?

A Oracle has embraced the use of Java, both internally and for its customers. The Oracle8 RDBMS will eventually include a Java Virtual Machine. Oracle WebServer 3.0 allows Java applets to invoke PL/SQL stored program units. And the current release of Developer/2000—1.4W—supports the generation of Java applets from Oracle Forms and Reports.

Q What application-development environments are discussed in this book?

A You learn about three application-development environments: Developer/2000, which includes Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, and Oracle Graphics; Oracle Power Objects; and PowerBuilder.

Workshop

The purpose of the Workshop is to allow you to test your knowledge of the material discussed in the lesson. See if you can correctly answer the questions in the quiz and complete the exercise before you continue with tomorrow's lesson.

Quiz

1. Name two advantages that relational databases offer over file management systems.
2. Name three advantages of the client/server computing architecture when compared to the mainframe computing architecture.
3. What is the name of the Oracle middleware product?
4. What is a "fat" client? What is a "thin" client?

Exercise

As I mentioned, this book uses a sample database for a small college. Start thinking about what kinds of information you think the college will want to store and retrieve. Ask yourself what kinds of questions a student, a professor, or an administrator might ask of the database. Jot down how you might organize this information. You'll return to this information on
Day 3, "Logical Database Design."