2700 pages and still writing! Sometimes I feel like the Energizer Bunny of PL/SQL. But Oracle keeps the features coming, and after all these years, I'm still enthusiastic about what PL/SQL can do to improve the quality of life for developers. Even with the coming of Java(TM) in Oracle8i, I believe strongly that the future is bright for PL/SQL developers.
This short book is something of a departure for me -- those of you who have read my larger tomes may wonder if I've found a ghostwriter! Now that Oracle8i is here, it's my intention to update Oracle PL/SQL Programming (now in its second edition) to cover the new version of the Oracle database. Along with developing a third edition of that book (with my coauthor Bill Pribyl), I'm taking a critical look at all of my books to make sure that the O'Reilly & Associates PL/SQL series offers a comprehensive resource for PL/SQL developers.
For now, though, PL/SQL developers need current and useful information about the latest PL/SQL features; there are a lot of them, and some represent major changes in the language. This small book is intended to get you started on understanding these features and using them to best advantage.
For many people, the big news about Oracle8i is Java, and the big question for many PL/SQL developers is how (and whether) to use Java in conjunction with PL/SQL. Chapter 9, Calling Java from PL/SQL, is a roadmap showing PL/SQL developers how to employ Java right now. It doesn't attempt to teach you the basics of Java -- there are many other books that serve that purpose -- but it does teach you how to access Java from within PL/SQL.
