Ok -- I thought I'd chime in here. I *humbly* consider myself knowledgeable
about this topic ;).
You can choose to use either DBD::ODBC or DBD::Oracle under windows
platforms (with caveats and issues that will be outlined below. Both
will/should work under most circumstances. However, as the *developer* of
DBD::ODBC, I use DBD::Oracle when using an Oracle data source. It's not
that I couldn't use DBD::ODBC, but...
a) DBD::Oracle is the most reliable and *fastest* method to talk to
Oracle.
b) The Microsoft Oracle ODBC drivers are terribly painful to use
c) The Oracle ODBC drivers are a *bit* buggy and nowhere near as
fast as DBD::Oracle
d) YMMV with 3rd party ODBC drivers. I used 3rd party drivers in
1993 or so, when DBD::Oracle didn't work on the Windows platform. In fact,
using Win32::ODBC and 3rd party Oracle ODBC drivers was what prompted me to
help "port" DBD::Oracle to Windows Perl in the first place...many moons ago
;)
As stated above, I *prefer* using DBD::Oracle when connecting to Oracle.
You need to have the Oracle client installed -- and licensed -- on your
machine. ActiveState *stopped* directly supporting DBD::Oracle binaries a
while ago (after the Perl 5.6.x timeframe and before 5.8.x timeframe).
Using anything but a DBD::Oracle built with the same version of perl you are
using is likely to be problematic. Since AS stopped putting up binary
versions, I started to. You can get DBI, DBD::Oracle, DBD::ODBC and
DBD::DB2 for current versions of AS Perl (5.8.3) from my repository. If you
get DBD::XXX from my repos, also ensure you get DBI from my repos. If you
don't, you are at your own risk with the binary compatibility. I've
"announced" these repositories in the past via [EMAIL PROTECTED] and
[EMAIL PROTECTED], so they should be in google too.
That said, there is a known issue with < 9x client libraries with the
binaries of DBD::Oracle. The next version of DBD::Oracle can handle that
better, but you may get an error related to the lack of OCILobWriteAppend in
earlier Oracle OCI clients...if so, for now, I recommend you update your
client while I work on the related issues.
Regards,
Jeff
