Publisher: Sybex, Inc.
Author(s): Nick Snowdon
Why a Book on Oracle and Visual Basic?
This is an unusual book as far as computer literature goes in that it covers two quite separate areas of information technology. Many good books are available on Oracle, although nearly every one is designed as a source of information for database administrators. There are probably more books on Visual Basic than any other topic except perhaps the Web, but you will rarely see the word “Oracle” in the indexes. The lack of information is what I found myself dealing with a few years ago. Even with my strong background in Visual Basic (version 3 at the time), I found getting myself connected to an Oracle database and making it perform efficiently and effectively posed a problem that needed an answer.
This is an unusual book as far as computer literature goes in that it covers two quite separate areas of information technology. Many good books are available on Oracle, although nearly every one is designed as a source of information for database administrators. There are probably more books on Visual Basic than any other topic except perhaps the Web, but you will rarely see the word “Oracle” in the indexes. The lack of information is what I found myself dealing with a few years ago. Even with my strong background in Visual Basic (version 3 at the time), I found getting myself connected to an Oracle database and making it perform efficiently and effectively posed a problem that needed an answer.
This book is a personal one because it provides the resource I would have liked to have had a few years ago. It combines an understanding of the basic concepts about Oracle without which you will have a hard time communicating with database administrators or carrying out the administration role yourself if you are caught in that situation. (Oracle is not the simplest of databases to administer, which is something that is not always appreciated by project managers.)
Most Oracle texts are generally too complicated for the novice who has a hard time trying to decide which things are important enough to learn and which can be safely discarded until more time is available for training. Visual Basic books, on the other hand, are either introductory or deal exclusively with Microsoft SQL Server. So many questions are left unanswered for Oracle developers, even if it is just seeing an example of how something works.
The paucity of books for Oracle developers and the absence of any coverage of Oracle in the Visual Basic literature has led to the need for such coverage; this book will provide you with the information to proceed with your VB front ends to Oracle.