Re: Informix vs. Oracle

On Fri, 8 Aug 1997, John A. Kroll wrote: > Nils van der Laan wrote: > > Who could i better ask about the differences between Informix and > > Oracle, than the Informix-users themselves. I would like to know which > > features of Informix are superior, but also which features Informix is > > missing compared to Oracle (maybe you know of some?) Well, one of the biggest areas I'd look into would be locking. Two very different methods. > In the embedded SQL area, Oracle provides a > nifty feature called "Host Arrays" which permits > you do execute sets of updates, inserts, deletes > or retrieve multiple rows on a select with a > single call to the database server. We don't use SPL, but I've seen this addressed several times -- it is possible to do w/ Informix. Just (I believe) poorly documented. > While Informix may have the better database server > (a subject open to much debate and heated flame wars), > Oracle by far provides better development tools and > documentation for those tools. Better development tools? [ Author's note - my oracle opinions are based on the training classes I just took and very slight RL experience, correct if wrong ] Database development tools .. not really sure what you mean here. If you're referring to tools in general though, Oracle doesn't even give you something as basic as 'dbschema' (from the 8 year Oracle veteran teaching the class -- just do an export without the data). No good way to get the information about the entire database. The number of times myself or others w/ external db experience in the training classes would ask a question to be told 'Well, I think there's a third-party tool that does something like that' just overwhelmed me. I can see why Oracle DBAs are in such high demand, though. A very high maintenance system. Then things like their number storage -- if you don't know, numbers are stored in some packed form and are inherently VARIABLE LENGTH. If you have some heavily updated numbers, be prepared to have some update overhead. I'll stop now, but I was really surprised -- I was expecting a much cleaner system for the self-proclaimed industry-leader. -Richard