Monday, November 24, 2003, 3:49:26 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: rcn> I see it referred to on metalink alot. I know its seperate from the rdbms.
Rdb was the database I cut my teeth on. So easy to use. As I recall, you could create a database with just the following: CREATE DATABASE; Everything, including the database name, would default. It was great, especially for learning on. Digital's online help was unsurpassed too. I learned a lot from that, and from their Rdb manual set. All Rdb's commands worked consistently and logically, and everything was so orthogonal. Heck, if you wanted to see what a table looked like, you just issued commands such as: SHOW TABLE SHOW TABLE /CONSTRAINTS (to see constraints too) SHOW TABLE /INDEXES /CONSTRAINTS SHOW TABLE /ALL (to see everything) I recall beginning my database education by tying HELP RDB at the operating system, and then progressing from there. Typing HELP from within RDB's interactive-SQL utility was sheer joy. One of the first things I did when I made the move to Oracle was to fire up SQL*Plus and issue the SHOW TABLE command to see the structure of a table I was trying to insert into. I was baffled that there was no such command. HELP SHOW didn't help much either, because I discovered that SHOW seemed to show a whole bunch of things I didn't care about and nothing that I did care about. I was even more astounded when I discovered DISPLAY, which didn't, and still doesn't, even begin to give you the information you needed in order to be able to get work done with a table. It took me over a day, as I recall, before I managed to find someone who could show me how to look at constraints on a table. I'd heard all these great and wonderful things about Oracle, that it was *the* database to learn. Well, from a career standpoint that's probably true, Oracle was the database to learn, but certainly not from a usability standpoint. Best regards, Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Join the Oracle-article list and receive one article on Oracle technologies per month by email. To join, visit http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/oracle-article, or send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include the word "subscribe" in either the subject or body. -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Jonathan Gennick INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
