Choosing a Programming Environment

Choosing a Programming Environment

To choose a programming environment for a new development project:

■Review the preceding overviews and the manuals for each environment.

■Read the platform-specific manual that explains which compilers are approved for use with your platforms.

■If a particular language does not provide a feature you need, remember that PL/SQL and Java stored procedures can both be called from code written in any of the languages in this chapter. Stored procedures include triggers and object type methods.

■External procedures written in C can be called from OCI, Java, PL/SQL or SQL. The external procedure itself can call back into the database using either SQL, OCI, or Pro*C (but not C++).

The following examples illustrate easy choices:

■Pro*COBOL does not support object types or collection types, while Pro*C/C++ does.

■SQLJ does not support dynamic SQL the way that JDBC does.

Choosing Whether to Use OCI or a Precompiler

Precompiler applications typically contain less code than equivalent OCI applications, which can help productivity.

Some situations require detailed control of the database and are suited for OCI applications (either pure OCI or a precompiler application with embedded OCI calls):

■OCI provides more detailed control over multiplexing and migrating sessions.

■OCI provides dynamic bind and define using callbacks that can be used for any arbitrary structure, including lists.

■OCI has many calls to handle metadata.

■OCI allows asynchronous event notifications to be received by a client application. It provides a means for clients to generate notifications for propagation to other clients.

■OCI allows DML statements to use arrays to complete as many iterations as possible before returning any error messages.

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