Which Platform and Version?

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This book contains examples from Oracle kernel releases 8 and 9 on operating systems including Linux, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, OSF-1, VMS, MVS, and Microsoft Windows. Most of the features described within this book are virtually independent of operating system, and most work equally well in Oracle releases from 7.0.12 through 9.2.0.

As I write this book, Oracle Corporation has not yet unleashed Oracle release 10. I'm not officially endowed with any foreknowledge of the release 10 kernel, but I have my suspicions about what they're doing with it. Where possible, I've identified areas in which the upcoming changes in release 10 will likely alter your world beyond what I've described in this book.

Some chapters are immune. The entirety of Part I and most of Part III will remain unchanged after Oracle release 10 comes onto the market. Most of Part II, you might be surprised to learn, is Oracle version independent. The core messages of Chapter 5, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 9 will remain unchanged by release 10. For example, though Chapter 7 gives examples of how Oracle Release 7, 8, and 9 kernels do their work, it also shows you how to find out whether release 10 behaves any differently. Though Chapter 8 shows details of Oracle9 i V$ views, which will change in release 10, the basic problems of polling and summarization will remain relevant in release 10.

Some features mentioned in this book are not available on every version of Oracle from 7 through 9 ( TRACEFILE_IDENTIFIER is one example). I've made no effort to list the Oracle kernel version in which new features appear. However, for features that may not be available in the release of Oracle that you're using, I generally provide two or more ways to accomplish a task. Therefore, if the elegant way to accomplish a task isn't available in your environment, then I have probably described an alternate way to get the job done.

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