Re: Do you use PL/SQL

On May 20, 4:02 am, Doug Davis <douglass_da..._at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> I will be teaching a PL/SQL class, and I wanted to get some opinions.
> I read about PL/SQL, but wanted some practical advice from people who
> have used it.
>
> 1. Why use PL/SQL instead of just sending SQL queries from a program
> written in a procedural language on the client side (Java, Visual
> Basic, C++, anything.)
>
> 2. What are some examples of "real-world" things that you have done
> with PL/SQL (or have heard some one do with PL/SQL?)
>
> thanks.
>
> --http://www.douglassdavis.com

I am a PL/SQL developer, and man is that a depressing question. What use are the skills I have built up over 18 years when you can just write your loops in Perl?

I work for a UK betting exchange which our marketing people like to say is the largest online betting company in the UK, the largest bet exchange in the world, and one of the five hottest Oracle databases in the world (this is in terms of transactions per second at peak times, sorry can't recall any figures off the top of my head but it's a lot). There is a J2EE middle tier that uses Coherence and so on, but essentially all the core processing of bet placement, matching and reconciliation currently takes place in PL/SQL.

Of course the J2EE guys will probably take functionality away from my group as time goes on, because it is more fashionable and they can do Aspect Oriented Design Patterns and funky things with shared memory structures while talking about scalability, but that's life for you. Good luck with your course. Received on Mon May 21 2007 - 01:27:47 CDT