All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Oracle bundling perl, DBI::DBD

pudge on 2001-10-15T19:06:42

An anonymous user writes, "Oracle appears to have started promoting perl to be used for programming in their Oracle 9iAS server environment.

See their story and claims for fame in http://technet.oracle.com/products/ias/daily/oct04.html"

Apache/mod_perl?

swiftone on 2001-10-15T19:26:44

The mod_perl module of Oracle HTTP Server

Does this mean that Oracle is shipping Apache? Can anyone testify that this means that mod_perl modules for an existing Apache installation could switch over painlessly?

Re:Apache/mod_perl?

jjn1056 on 2001-10-15T20:06:02

Both Oracle 9iAs and 8iAS (as of 8.1.7, I think) use Apache as a webserver. They include mod_perl (1.3x) but the current version doesn't include the DBI or Oracle DBD drivers, at least for the NT version I'm running on my local computer. This lack seems strange until you read their documentation and see that they consider Perl a 'Presentation' technology, like XSLT, not a 'Business logic' technology (JSP, PLSQL Server Pages) or Enterprise Component technology (J2EE).

Looks like the next version of 9iAS will include DBI and drivers, which is good, since you'd have to install them anyways... I wonder if this signifies a change in the way they view Perl? We all know how easy it is to create Perl SOAP services, maybe Oracle will followup on this.

Re:Apache/mod_perl?

Tim Bunce on 2001-10-16T20:36:28

Yes, I'm told Oracle are shipping Apache + mod_perl.

Here's a quote from an email to dbi-users by Fernando Lozano:

``The news are even better, as Oracle droped most of it's own web technologies in favor op Free Software packages. Oracle9iAS is Apache + mod_perl + JServ + free libs, and they reengineered their PL/SQL stuff as a mod_plsql package for Apache.''

More stuff about perl from Oracle.

jjn1056 on 2001-10-15T21:07:46

From a quick review of recent articles drawn from the same 9iAS website, I don't get a very warm fuzzy feeling.

See:

http://technet.oracle.com/products/ias/daily/sept2 7.html

This puts Perl in an article about "Legacy Technology" in "The Days before Java".

Doing a general search for perl articles on Oracle's website doesn't come up with a lot of useful information, just how to install mod_perl, etc.

This is a step in the right direction, but overall Perl's support at Oracle is lackluster. Considering all the things they could do (such as embedding the Perl interpreter in the database, or not getting cut off if you call Oracle helpline and say the work 'Perl') if they wanted, this is a baby step.

All in all, the Perl comunity has been very good to Oracle. I wonder just how much Perl has contributed too their success? Seems to me they could be better to us.

Re:More stuff about perl from Oracle.

pudge on 2001-10-16T13:03:05

In the early days of the web, perl was a very popular scripting language to develop dynamic applications for the web.

That's like saying in the early days of America, English was a very popular language for everyday communication.

mixed news

brev on 2001-10-16T03:47:15

it's nice that they include perl in the Oracle distro, but it gives the oracle/perl user a choice -- go it alone with their own perl, or stick with oracle's binary distro?

it would be much better if they were more liberal with the sources to their libraries, so that third parties could distribute the drivers, with ActivePerl or, I dunno, MacPerl or what have you.

Considering that perl is pre-installed on many of the popular platforms for Oracle, it seems like a waste to have to have two different perls!

Re:mixed news

ask on 2001-10-16T10:12:19

In many environments it's common to have a separate perl installation for the "production stuff".

Anyway, that's not the point. If you use it as something that came bundled in your package from Oracle, it must be easier to tell them to fix it if it doesn't work. That's a big deal[tm] in many places.

  - ask