From: C Erler <erlercw@...>
Date: 2005-07-07T19:18:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Marketing a system that relies on a component that is alpha version 0.1

On 06/07/05, Jenjhiz <jenjhiz@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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
> 

Assuming the interface to Ruby has a license that allows it, fork the
project, make no changes, and release BusinessOCI8 version 9.5.