There are a few development tools that I really couldn't do without, and I have to say that Embarcadero DBArtisan & Schema Manager for Oracle (or MSSQL, etc.) are among them. They're expensive (over $1000 for the set) but I've found them invaluable. Here are the two most valuable features I would have to see before I'd switch:
1) You can make a series of interactive changes to a table schema and then have it figure out the minimal SQL to do it. If it can't be done with an Oracle primitive (e.g. renaming a column, reordering columns, changing column type) it generates all the SQL to drop/disable all dependent objects, constraints, rename the old table, create a new table, transfer the data, recreate all the dependent objects, etc.
2) It can do a diff of two database schemas, or of a database schema against a historical archive and generate SQL you can use to perform the delta. This is incredibly useful.
And there are a number of other features that make managing a monster like Oracle a lot easier. Perhaps it will eventually run adequately under WINE. I'm not saying this to promote the product, but to point out some useful features that go beyond just executing a query and seeing the results, and to get people thinking about what it is you actually do when managing a complex database. And maybe there is a more open/portable too out there to do this. (Though it's saved me enough time that I don't begrudge them their dollars - they're smart programmers, and they've done a good job.)
We had an ASP based site that we're moving to Java (using ATG Dynamo, which I think is a great piece of software). The main reasons were:
- Microsoft has no plausible strategy for load balancing or failover for multiple servers.
- The execution speed of the VBScript interpreter is very slow. Some rough benchmarks indicated Java would give us about a 5x performance boost. (Though you can improve your ASP performance about 2.5x by putting as much logic as possible into COM objects.)
- The ability to actually write a maintainable software architecture. ASP is great to get something going quickly, but you can't write reusable code that's more than a single routine, or uses actual object-oriented programming techniques. It's just not a real programming language.
ASP has its advantages, however. It has a short, incremental learning curve, and tons of people know a little already, so your average IT staff will probably be able to maintain it. It would probably be a good choice for a simple, low-traffic intranet site that could live with NT-level reliability and scalability.
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There are a few development tools that I really couldn't do without, and I have to say that Embarcadero DBArtisan & Schema Manager for Oracle (or MSSQL, etc.) are among them. They're expensive (over $1000 for the set) but I've found them invaluable. Here are the two most valuable features I would have to see before I'd switch:
1) You can make a series of interactive changes to a table schema and then have it figure out the minimal SQL to do it. If it can't be done with an Oracle primitive (e.g. renaming a column, reordering columns, changing column type) it generates all the SQL to drop/disable all dependent objects, constraints, rename the old table, create a new table, transfer the data, recreate all the dependent objects, etc.
2) It can do a diff of two database schemas, or of a database schema against a historical archive and generate SQL you can use to perform the delta. This is incredibly useful.
And there are a number of other features that make managing a monster like Oracle a lot easier. Perhaps it will eventually run adequately under WINE. I'm not saying this to promote the product, but to point out some useful features that go beyond just executing a query and seeing the results, and to get people thinking about what it is you actually do when managing a complex database. And maybe there is a more open/portable too out there to do this. (Though it's saved me enough time that I don't begrudge them their dollars - they're smart programmers, and they've done a good job.)
We had an ASP based site that we're moving to Java (using ATG Dynamo, which I think is a great piece of software). The main reasons were:
- Microsoft has no plausible strategy for load balancing or failover for multiple servers.
- The execution speed of the VBScript interpreter is very slow. Some rough benchmarks indicated Java would give us about a 5x performance boost. (Though you can improve your ASP performance about 2.5x by putting as much logic as possible into COM objects.)
- The ability to actually write a maintainable software architecture. ASP is great to get something going quickly, but you can't write reusable code that's more than a single routine, or uses actual object-oriented programming techniques. It's just not a real programming language.
ASP has its advantages, however. It has a short, incremental learning curve, and tons of people know a little already, so your average IT staff will probably be able to maintain it. It would probably be a good choice for a simple, low-traffic intranet site that could live with NT-level reliability and scalability.