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Well, I used to work with Oracle Databases and that "old man" (Donald Burleson) website has saved me quite a few times. I even remember the "Learn Oracle at t
by kunagi7 5y ago
Well, I used to work with Oracle Databases and that "old man" (Donald Burleson) website has saved me quite a few times.
I even remember the "Learn Oracle at the Sea" advertisement.
But that's the state of affairs and I try to avoid them as much as I can. Amazon seems to think similar [0].
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yBP5gnnZi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yBP5gnnZi4
- qsort 5y agoTo be really fair, have you ever seen SQL error messages that don't suck? I do agree that Oracle's are the worst by far though.
- tomrod 5y agoI feel Postgres and SQL Server are easier to grok error states. Oracle seems to want to be an application platform more than a datastore
- ptrwis 5y agoExactly, Oracle should be chosen when business logic is written in sql/plsql
- yyyk 5y agoI don't have the experience to compare them to Oracle, but SQL Server and Postgres do have their own issues. The infamous MSSQL "string or binary data will be truncated" error (fixed a while ago[0]), or the way either deals with unqualified access to columns which leads to surprises (e.g. in MSSQL subqueries or in Postgres's SECURITY DEFINER procedures). [0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/database-console-commands/dbcc-traceon-trace-flags-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver15#tf460 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/database-console-...
- tomrod 5y agoOh indeed, they all have quirks. Oracle seems to have more than most, IMO. I have a journeyman data engineering level experience with each. Rare combo I guess, Data Scientist focus.
- kunagi7 5y agoOn Oracle most of the error messages are bad, not precise enough or plainly wrong. Basic things like a wrong error line (failure is on line 3, displays 5 or 6), messages that aren't related to the real issue. You're pretty much on your own. Also, I had to switch to DBeaver since Oracle SQL Developer made things worse with random crashes and freezes. Back when I used it, an easy way to freeze the editor was connecting to a DB via VPN and then suddenly disconnect. The connection gets stuck, parts of the UI get frozen and after a while the whole thing freezes. MySQL/MariaDB and Postgres are better.
- mypastself 5y agoTo be fair, I had to switch to DBeaver for Postgres as well, as pgAdmin’s usability has been steadily decreasing since the first release of version 4. The lack of quality GUI is essentially my only problem with Postgres, though.
- thornygreb 5y agoMy goto was Tom Kyte (https://asktom.oracle.com https://asktom.oracle.com) for learning the 'why'. Burleson is an interesting character, but not always correct either.
- msluyter 5y agoTom Kyte books were great and beyond Oracle, I learned a lot about databases generally from them.
- pantulis 5y agoMy SO was a Oracle DBA and she swore by Kyte's books.
- kubanczyk 5y agoLast I've heard of Tom Kyte: https://archive.is/20150928144011/http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2015/15-sep/last-asktom-2650480.html https://archive.is/20150928144011/http://www.oracle.com/tech... His answers were sometimes prime examples of what is today known as seriously unwelcoming. But I remember I un-learned the "best practices" meme reading one of his answers. In fact it was just one sentence, some concise version of "if the 'best' setting existed, nobody would bother to make it a configurable option". But it clicked. Burleson's more advanced answers were of limited usefulness, because they have never mentioned the exact oracle version. They often have been only valid for antiques like Oracle 7.
- edgriebel 5y agoTom Kite is/was great, but his answers are the equivalent of "I'm glad you asked, pull up a chair and let me tell you a story about a white whale..."