Oratcl - Tcl interface to Oracle database server * Oracle interface to Tcl * * Copyright 1993 Tom Poindexter and U S WEST Advanced Technologies, Inc. * * Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its * documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided * that the above copyright notice appear in all copies. * Tom Poindexter and U S WEST make no representations about the suitability * of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or * implied warranty. By use of this software the user agrees to * indemnify and hold harmless Tom Poindexter and U S WEST from any * claims or liability for loss arising out of such use. * *----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 1.0 July, 1993 * Tom Poindexter, Boulder Colorado * tpoind@advtech.uswest.com or tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu *----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 2.0 November, 1993 * Tom Poindexter, Boulder Colorado * tpoind@advtech.uswest.com or tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu *----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 2.1 February, 1994 * Tom Poindexter, Boulder Colorado * tpoind@advtech.uswest.com or tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu *----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 2.11 April, 1994 * Tom Poindexter, Boulder Colorado * tpoind@advtech.uswest.com or tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu *----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 2.2 October, 1994 * Tom Poindexter, Denver Colorado * tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu <<>>>>>> I've put oratcl-2.5.tar.gz on ftp.neosoft.com in /pub/tcl/sorted/databases/oratcl-2.5/oratcl-2.5.tar.gz Also available at: http://www.neosoft.com/tcl/ftparchive/sorted/databases see the newsgroup comp.lang.tcl for general Tcl discussion and the Tcl Frequently Asked Questions. I've built Oratcl in SunOS 4.1.2 (BSD), Solaris 2.5 (Sys 5.4), Dec Unix V4.x, and HP-UX 10.x, and Windows NT 4.0/VC++ 4.0. Other users have reported successful compiles on: Data General DG/UX Sequent PTX 2.1 IBM AIX SGI Irix (mail to me on a successful port on other platforms; I'll add to this list) WINDOWS NT/95 AND MACINTOSH DLLs for Windows NT/95 are supplied in the ./win directory. Two DLLs are supplied, one compiled with Tcl 7.6, the other compiled with Tcl 8.0. Run the 'install.tcl' to install the correct version. ** Windows users can use 'WinZip' to unpack .tar.gz files. See the win/README.win file for more information. At this time, no Macintosh libraries are supplied. (Anyone with a Mac, a C compiler, and Oracle libraries care to contribute? email me!) SAMPLES Some samples are included using the Extended Tcl tcl(1) and wishx(1) interpreters. In particular, the "wosql" (Windowing Oracle SQL) program is a handy replacement for Sql*Plus for ad hoc queries. Wosql does not attempt to provide any of the report generating and formatting capabilities of Sql*Plus. Also in ./samples is iud_maker, an Oratcl that builds insert-update-delete applications for a single table. The ODDIS graphical data dictionary application is included in ./samples/oddis. OSQL in ./samples/osql - another SQL query tool (requires TclX, [incr tcl], Blt). Check them out! See ./samples/README.samples plus each file's comments and code. MAN PAGE You're in luck! I've written one. OTHER DOCUMENTATION Oratcl is explained in greater detail in "Tcl/Tk Tools", edited by Mark Harrison, and published by O'Reilly and Associates. "Tcl/Tk Tools" is a new book that covers many of the popular Tcl extensions, written by the authors of each extension (I wrote the chapters on Sybtcl and Oratcl.) 1st Edition published September 1997, ISBN: 1-56592-218-2 See your local bookstore, or try: http://www.softpro.com http://www.amazon.com http://www.ora.com http://www.barnesandnoble.com BUG REPORTS Comments, suggestions, et.al., should be mailed to me at the above email address, or posted to comp.lang.tcl if general enough nature. Hell, you can even mail to me if you like Oratcl! Mail bug reports to: tpoindex@nyx.net If you post a question or bug report to comp.lang.tcl, I may not see it, so please copy me also. Please ALWAYS include: -version of Oratcl -version of Tcl, Tk, and TclX -version of Oracle server and OCI libary -version of your operating system -switches used with configure (see config.status) -compiler used, stock cc or Gcc -samples of SQL or Oratcl code causing problems -relevant database table definitions, views, procedures KNOWN BUGS !!! Certain bugs in Oracle's OCI library may cause problems for Oratcl. Oracle's 7.1.4 and 7.1.5 releases seems to have introduced several problems with their Oracle Call Interface (OCI) libraries that Oratcl uses. Symptoms include excessively long connect times (2+ minutes) when using Sql*Net, or possibly "fetch out of sequence" errors when retrieving rows. Use 7.0.x or 7.1.6+ OCI libraries if you experience problems with 7.1.4 or 7.1.5. See the file OCI714.bug for additional details. Oracle's 7.3.2.3 release also exhibits a tendency to core dump when using oralogon. This is a known bug in Oracle's OCI library build. See the file OCI7323.bug for addititional details. I've also received a few reports of Oratcl (OCI problems again) having some bad interaction with Tcl's 'exec' command. It sounds like OCI and the 'exec' command are battling over signals. If you're having problems using 'exec' with Oratcl, try using 'exec' with in a 'catch' command. Mail to me on this problem if you have any explanations, and again, contact Oracle tech support. ORATCL WWW PAGE I keep terse, but usually up to date information at: http://www.nyx.net/~tpoindex TCL DATABASE MAILING LIST A mailing list is available for specific discussions about using Tcl with databases, including Oratcl, Sybtcl, etc. Feel free to join and mail to the list. The list is hosted by De Clarke. To subscribe to this list send mail to listserv@ucolick.org and in the body of the message write subscribe tcldb To unsubscribe... (well, you get the idea). Please remember to write to tcldb-owner with problems about the list itself, or to postmaster@ucolick.org if you have difficulties getting through to the tcldb-owner address. Please do not send subscribe and unsubscribe messages to the list itself. INSTALLATION Quickie install instructions: ./configure --prefix=/same/prefix/path/as/with/tcl/configure \ --exec-prefix=/same/exec-prefix/path/as/with/tcl/configure make make install Didn't work? You'll have to read the INSTALL file. Maybe you should read it anyway. NOTE!!! I strongly advise that you build Tcl with the '--enable-shared' option. Oratcl uses information that Tcl's configure finds, particularly information about compiling and linking for dynamic shared libraries. Oratcl by default builds a shared library. See the INSTALL file for additional notes. OTHER Try out the Oratcl C API. It allows your C programs to access Oracle using the Oratcl model. It's experimental; please mail to me if it works for you, or if you have improvements. See ./oratcl-capi/* See the file CHANGES for changes in versions of Oratcl. -finis-