getting started questions

[brian]

getting started questions with oracle :
(database administration and for learning as well as
the certification, though certification is secondary)

1. besides training manuals for oracle is there a book or
a guide that would help a starter with being able to
install and configure a basic oracle db server so that
one could start from here.
good forums, mailing lists, etc

2. there is oracle 8 and 8i
what does the i stand for ?

3. PL is no more in oracle 9 ? is that true ?

[Karsten Farrell]

brian wrote:
> getting started questions with oracle :
> (database administration and for learning as well as
> the certification, though certification is secondary)
>
> 1. besides training manuals for oracle is there a book or
> a guide that would help a starter with being able to
> install and configure a basic oracle db server so that
> one could start from here.
> good forums, mailing lists, etc
>

Try _Oracle DBA 101_ by Theriault, Carmichael, and Viscusi. It's very
basic, but should be a good start. Covers more than the Dummies books,
but unfortunately, isn't as humorous.

> 2. there is oracle 8 and 8i
> what does the i stand for ?
>

It stands for "internet" ... everyone wants to say they're internet
enabled. I'm just surprised Oracle hasn't followed the rest of the sheep
(vendors) and named some of their products eSomething ... eOracle 9i
would cover both bases. :)

> 3. PL is no more in oracle 9 ? is that true ?

Well, I certainly hope it's still there ... even though Oracle is
strongly pushing DBAs and developers to learn Java.