Saturday, October 31, 2009

Sure hope Oracle keeps mySQL!

I have decided that I really hope that Oracle gets to keep mySQL when it completes the acquisition of Sun (though I can certainly understand if the European Union draws the line and demands that it be spun off).

Why would I like this?

First, I am certain that Oracle will treat it right, probably do a better job of supporting and enhancing it than has Sun, simply because it has deeper pockets with which to finance such an effort.

Second, as you may have read by now, IBM has announced support for PL/SQL-based applications on DB2 9.7. So? Well, I think there is a rather good chance that in a few years, all of IBM's DB2 variants will support PL/SQL.

And if Oracle keeps mySQL, it seems to me that there is every reason to believe that Oracle will port PL/SQL over to mySQL, so that it has a solid programming language with which to manipulate mySQL data (the current state of mySQL's stored procedure language is not very encouraging).

Add to that the fact that PL/SQL now also runs on Oracle's Times Ten database, and it is possible for me to dream about a day when PL/SQL will become the de facto standard database programming language for SQL/RDBMS databases (well, except for Microsoft SQL Server).

What does that mean? I can sell more books! Do more trainings and webinars!

Go, PL/SQL, go!

3 comments:

Noons said...

Fantastic news, Steven. Missed the PL/SQL for db2 bit in all the noise about it being "Oracle compatible".

Long overdue db makers stopped listening to the Stonebraker grunts, woke up and realized PL/SQL is by far the best solution for rdbms.

Dang, I might go back to development if this keeps up!

Unknown said...

Noons, I don't know what "listening to the Stonebraker grunts" means, though it sounds intriguing. Is M. Stonebraker leading a team to develop a new programming language for RDBMSs?

EasyK8s said...

My guess is that they would provide some very rough PL/SQL and aim towards ultra-simpla-and-easy migration to Oracle...
Anyway - PL/SQL is going to be fine for next couple of years :)