In this article, Thomas will describe Oracle which became less reasonable for developers to just download, install, configure, and run Oracle. Until November 2005 that is - that is the month that Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition - the fourth in a family of Oracle Database offerings that now include XE (Express Edition), SE1 (Standard Edition One), SE (Standard Edition) and EE (Enterprise Edition).

I got started with Oracle first in 1987. I was fresh out of college, in a new job, learning lots of new stuff. I was in a job that had as its description in the newspaper the tagline Programmer wanted - no experience necessary.

I had all of the necessary skills for that and got started. From the very beginning I was curious about all software - but experienced with none. Looking around at work I saw I had a lot to learn. I was employed in a mainframe shop programming PL/I applications against SQL/DS and DB2 on IBM mainframes.

Figure 1. HTML DB home page for the XE database

I read as many technical magazines back then as I could get my hands on one of my favorite magazine. In this magazine there was an advertisement for something called Oracle, version 5.1.5c - a relational database that could run on a DOS based PC with very little memory. It said it came with everything you needed to develop and deploy applications in such an environment. Intrigued - I read further. The advertisement claimed that for $99 USD, I could own this piece of software. I ordered it and it arrived and I’ve been addicted ever since - to this thing called Oracle.

That experience, of having a full fledged professional database programming environment, changed my life. I got to learn Oracle, I got to learn the tools available with Oracle - and shortly that made a difference. It opened opportunities for me and in many ways changed my career path, although I did not realize it at the time. I would not be as much about Oracle as I am today had I not had that opportunity.

Over the intervening years, this opportunity - for developers to get an inexpensive version of Oracle with the tools needed to develop applications was not as easy. Oracle did not sell for $99 USD for long after that and as the complexity of software grew, it became less reasonable for developers to just download, install, configure, and run Oracle. The opportunities I had starting out with Oracle became less available.

Until November 2005 that is - that is the month that Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition - the fourth in a family of Oracle Database offerings that now include XE (Express Edition), SE1 (Standard Edition One), SE (Standard Edition) and EE (Enterprise Edition). XE, as I’ll refer to it in this article from now on, differs from the others in one main area - it is free to download, free to develop with, free to deploy on, and free to distribute. It makes the opportunity I myself had with Oracle way back when available to everyone again. A developer, student, a "want to be" DBA, software developer - whomever, may now use Oracle.

sum:

0 €

» Library of the Month
» Workshop
» Software Engineering
» Programming Tools
» Interview
» High quality and
secure programming
» Reverse Engineering
» Portable GUI
» Artificial intelligence