From: Jenjhiz <jenjhiz@...>
Date: 2005-07-07T05:15:45+09:00
Subject: Marketing a system that relies on a component that is alpha version 0.1

No matter how good the programming language is, no matter how easy it
is to develop database centric application with it, if the application
relies critically on a software component that is alpha version 0.1 the
last 7 years or so, and rarely upgraded, I  will be laughed off if I
suggest to use such an application for corporate computing. But such is
the case with Ruby and Ruby on Rails relying on Oracle OCI8. Oracle
OCI8 has been alpha 0.1 since the first time I saw it (7 years ago?),
rarely upgraded (though the last one was May 2005). The perception is
that the developer of the driver perceives the driver to be *that much*
a long way to being production version 1.0, and has no time or desire
to get it to production robustness, and its development progress is
slower than the speed of a snail travelling across a path covered with
molasses.

If OCI8 is ready for production use now, don't be too modest, call it
version 1.0. If not, work to convey that there is a path to it getting
there soon. The battle for tool makers appears to have settled down;
lines have been drawn among Ruby, PHP, Python. The next battle is over
the minds and hearts of business database programmers. There's a lot of
VB, Delphi, PowerBuilder, and Oracle Developer developers to be won
over. You can't even be a contender in this battle if you don't have
database drivers perceived as active players and that perform  with
industrial strength.

gk