tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post6045773152171188656..comments2024-03-21T22:50:39.997-07:00Comments on Obsessed with Oracle PL/SQL: PL/SQL Programming Joke #2: Don't Use Built-In Packages, Because - Definer RightsSteven Feuersteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18405765731886460622noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-20990093360171298782016-11-19T02:59:40.603-08:002016-11-19T02:59:40.603-08:00Yes, they are wonderful indeed :):)
Those moments...Yes, they are wonderful indeed :):)<br /><br />Those moments are "one's finest hour", if I'm allowed to use a famous phrase of Winston Churchill :):)<br /><br />And I did have many ones like this one, simply because each time when we faced an upgrade, there was a "central issue" involved that I knew before head that NO ONE would help me in any way<br />if I am not able to find the solution by myself.<br /><br />The only problem is that in business companies everything is measured in terms of "time and money" only ...<br />the beauty of a solution DOES NOT matter to anyone ... surely not to those "managers" who had never ever in their lives "made their own hands wet" by trying to solve a problem by themselves ...<br /><br />Even now I hear things like "Oh, what a great product is SAP !", <br />because, when doing an upgrade, there is "only" need of a whole "armada" (yes, tens and hundreds) of implementers, and tens of meetings for reporting backward compatibility bugs ...<br />in comparison with Oracle Forms for example ... where each upgrade was so complicated because in each version they completely modified the software ...<br /><br />I have put aside for my own memory all these "little jewels", that I was so proud of at their time :):)<br /><br />If I had had the chance of working in a software-oriented environment/company, I guess that all these nice solutions could have gained a lot more recognition ...<br /><br /><br />I am still very sorry up to this day that no one in my late company has ever become fully aware of how great a product Oracle Forms was indeed ... they just "carried it over" from version to version,<br />secretly awaiting the moment when they could get rid of it completely ... just as they prepare for getting rid of Oracle as a database.<br /><br />In the ugly business-oriented world of today, one should always expect that ALL his efforts and achievements be cancelled from one moment to the next ... because there will always be software managers ready to put the carriage in front of the horses and convince the business management that throwing away the entire software and replacing it with something else is what will bring them the desired results ( aka the desired money ) ... <br />just like the search for the "philosopher's stone" in the Middle Age ...<br /><br />Cheers & Best Regards,<br />Iudith<br />iudithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04905902445036068357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-91261069836979087772016-11-16T08:05:43.826-08:002016-11-16T08:05:43.826-08:00That is a great story, Iudith.
"on my way h...That is a great story, Iudith. <br /><br />"on my way home in the middle of the night, <br />I elaborated a completely different strategy for this upgrade ... and the next day it took me a few hours to complete it"<br /><br />Aren't those moments wonderful?Steven Feuersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18405765731886460622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-48430236020151682792016-11-16T07:57:18.460-08:002016-11-16T07:57:18.460-08:00Hello Steven,
If already at this point of "m...Hello Steven,<br /><br />If already at this point of "memories of old people" ...<br />then let me just add that I also worked a lot in older versions of SQL*FORMS (V2.1, V2.3) using a simple text editor ...<br />I learned the "tricky working in editor" from even older people ...<br />since the times when forms were intially created using a command-line interactive utility called FASTFORM, and then customized manually, for example by adding triggers <br />(then yet BEFORE the PL/SQL era at all !) ...<br />In reward, I taught those oldies to use the first GUI developer, born in V2.1 ...<br /><br />But all this manual work helped me A LOT later, when I created some amazing utilities for various upgrades of Forms ...<br /><br />I especially remember one of our upgrades, from Hebrew 7bit to Hebrew 8bit on the old good VMS systems ... still in V2.3 ...<br /><br />After a software was bought from another company to do this upgrade, the result was a total mess ... and the resulting forms were completely unusable ...<br />So, we had to cancel this upgrade after a day + a night of work ... and then, on my way home in the middle of the night, <br />I elaborated a completely different strategy for this upgrade ... and the next day it took me a few hours to complete it<br />and afterwards the upgrade was done fast and successfully :):)<br /><br />And now the joke part of it: That utility that I created became so "famous", that ultimately I was friendly asked "to lend it" to other companies ... even by the same person (a good and serious DBA by the way) who initially sold us <br />the first upgrade method that failed ...<br /><br />I have a very long and very beautiful history with ALL the versions of SQL*FORMS :):)<br /><br />And also helped others a lot by answering their questions in various forums, which was always very pleasant for me to do :):)<br /><br />Cheers & Best Regards,<br />Iudith<br />iudithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04905902445036068357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-10360784759866142372016-11-15T11:56:36.602-08:002016-11-15T11:56:36.602-08:00Certainly no joke about SQL*Forms. I cut my PL/SQL...Certainly no joke about SQL*Forms. I cut my PL/SQL teeth of V3, I loved that product. I build an interactive debugger for SQL*Forms in SQL*Forms. That was a lot of fun! It was a genuine RAD tool that perfectly meshed with user expectations of UIs back then.Steven Feuersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18405765731886460622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-47276311010912070582016-11-15T11:19:07.646-08:002016-11-15T11:19:07.646-08:00Ah, yes ...
I suddenly remembered a problem, many...Ah, yes ... <br />I suddenly remembered a problem, many, many years ago,<br />still in Oracle7, when I was very proud of having implemented<br />some dynamic queries in a package, using DBMS_SQL,<br />with the purpose to call afterwards some of those functions<br />from simple SQL statements.<br /><br />And then, I just discovered that I could not add the required<br />PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES to my packaged functions,<br />because DBMS_SQL itself did NOT have that PRAGMA defined :(:(<br /><br />The good, old times .... since then, the PRAGMA was added,<br />and even documented, though today it is not strictly needed<br />any more ...<br /><br />And, yes, our so many similarities :):)<br /><br />I also worked for many years on an Insurance application ...<br />and also developed a lot in SQL*FORMS V3 and also earlier, as well as later versions ...<br />By the way, thanks a lot for calling SQL*FORMS wonderful :):)<br />I hope this is NOT a joke ... Oracle Forms, with its various versions is one of the Oracle products that I loved most along<br />the years :):):)<br /><br />And, the last similarity:<br /><br />Our DBA-s also have not ever heard about DBMS_SYS_SQL ...<br />and also not about Method 4 ... and, no, it surely doesn't occur to any of them that they are missing anything and might need to learn <br />or be mentored ...<br /><br />The "joke" is that they are still there, and I am not ...<br /><br />Cheers & Best Regards,<br />Iudith<br /><br /><br /><br />iudithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04905902445036068357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-88550723582521737382016-11-15T07:47:16.470-08:002016-11-15T07:47:16.470-08:00You do what you gotta do. :-) Thanks for sharing!You do what you gotta do. :-) Thanks for sharing!Steven Feuersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18405765731886460622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7849367040589270673.post-41692425052858411912016-11-15T07:42:57.363-08:002016-11-15T07:42:57.363-08:0010,000 years ago (in Oracle time) I was a DBA of a...10,000 years ago (in Oracle time) I was a DBA of a V6 database. Back then using SYS for maintenance and such of the database was pretty common (We didn't have the internet back then so hacking into a system was nearly impossible, we didn't even have dial in to this system back then.) The SA of the system (who knew nothing about Oracle), learned that SYS was like ROOT and felt it necessary to change the password. He had some elaborate system to derive a cryptic password. Of course he didn't tell me what he was doing. So when a job failed I was completely taken by surprise. <br /><br />Finally I figured out what was happening. When I asked him about it he stuck to his guns, we need this level of security! (He was a bit vague on why, since it wasn't a financial system or even remotely like that.) Rather then make a fuss I just did a connect internal form then on and he could change the password all he wanted, I never needed to use it. Of course I never told him I was bypassing his security scheme. Ric Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13372723714711916938noreply@blogger.com