is there a comparison of 9i and 8.1.7

[bookouri]

Does anyone know of any documents comparing 8.1.7 and 9i? specifically, we have a new Oracle project and we only have 8.1.7 or earlier databases right now. The question has come up regarding going with 9i on the new project vs 8.1.7. Are there any gotchas with 9i that we need to be aware of? I havnt been able to find any good documents that would tell me if its worth going to 9i or better to stick with 8.1.7.

i would appreciate any comments, suggestions...

 

[Abhivyakti]

hi

yes there is a lot of difference in 8/8i and 9i release. There are new documents in the 9i documentation. But there isnot just one book which i can suggest which will be sortof summary what u wnat to read.

The thing is, there are all diferent areas where new features have been implemented startin from SQL, PL/SQL, SQLJ, XML, OCI, and OCCI, Java support.

As far as SQL is concerned, there is one new DML stmt, MERGE, which allows to merge the data from 2 tables. Especially to mention about the datetime datatypes that they have introduced.

I have been teaching 8i and since Dec 2001, teaching 9i at SQL * International which is one of the first institutes as far as oracle is concerned being business partners for ORacle Education.

Go for the documentation on the website. Or else, if you have oracle CDs install the documentation. In each documentation book, before they start wiht the stuff, there is a copmarison for what is new in the 9i version.

Ihope this helps you.

abhivyakti

 

[bookouri]

thanks, Ive been digging through all the oracle docs I can find. What Im hoping to find is independant assessment of 8i vs 9i. I have to make a decision pretty quick for this project and since Im comfortable and familiar with 8i Im tempted to take the easy way out and not upgrade, but if I could find real world info - like the merge capability you mentioned - that would give me some concrete reason to go 9i.

thanks for the response...

 

[karluk]

I don't have any references for you, but as a strictly practical matter it is overwhelmingly better to start a new development effort with Oracle 9i. Think about it. If you implement with 8i, you are making more work for yourself down the road because you will have to upgrade to 9i at some point. Then you will have to deal with any 9i "gotchas" that weren't addressed during the development effort. At the same time, 8i is hardly bug free, so you may spend extra time in development dealing with problems that you could have avoided by using 9i from the start.

Oracle 9i has been out for some time now, so they've had plenty of time to correct bugs. As a rule of thumb, it's safest to delay upgrades until a product has been in general release for six to twelve months. 9i easily meets that criteria. I know for a fact that a lot of the bugs that have been logged against 8.1.7 have fixes that were implemented in 9i.

So, it's just my opinion, but I would strongly recommend using 9i for your development project.

 

[bookouri]

thanks, thats the kind of straight answer I havnt been able to get from documentation... guess I better dig out the 9i installation guide..<G>

thanks again for all the comments