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Sept. 10, 1997

"Object" tool to get object-oriented features

The story

InfoWorld, September 1, 1997, includes an article entitled "Oracle8 users will wait for new object features". Some excerpts:

Oracle8 database users wanting new object-oriented functions, such as object inheritance, may have to wait until December 1998, according to Oracle. [...]
Oracle has been criticized in some circles for not offering sufficient object functionality in Oracle8. [...]
"One of the things we've seen at this point is that all these object features are well ahead of the market demand for them", said Herb Edelstein, president of Two Crows, a consultancy in Potomac, Md. "It's going to take years and years to deploy, and people don't even know how to use objects yet".

Our comment

It is no secret that vendors of object-oriented databases are mad at Oracle for stifling the growth of their industry by announcing, for a long time, that Oracle would support objects anyway.

It is not our role to take a stand in the database wars, but we do suggest exercising some caution when using the word "object" or "object-oriented". Too many times it is just a slogan, and too many "O-O" products don't support the basics described in detail e.g. in the book Object-Oriented Software Construction: abstraction, information hiding, modularity, single and multiple inheritance, polymorphism, dynamic binding, Design by Contract.

Eiffel users don't have that problem, as they have access to the most thoroughly O-O environment available, yet one that seamlessly interfaces with the non-O-O world. And regarding databases they can use both relational DBMS, through EiffelStore, and a number of object-oriented databases.

Reference

Oracle8 users will wait for new object features by Paul Krill, in InfoWorld September 1, 1997, page 40. The magazine's Web page is at http://www.infoworld.com. See also another news story from the same issue: COM rides on Windows coattails.

To other "news stories of the week".