Oracle Corp, ever a company for the sweeping gesture, launched its Oracle Card product recently headlining the launch Multimedia enters the Mainstream. The Card was announced in January (CI No 1,600) and marks Oracle’s entry into the front end client environment. In fact, assuming it works – and there were users present to testify that it did – Oracle Card is a credit to Oracle purely for mundane reasons like it happens to be one of the first development tools for front-end Windows 3.0 applications provided by a relational database vendor. Gupta Technologies Inc managed to just squeeze its Quest SQL product out first (CI No 1,690), but nevertheless, Oracle has beaten Ingres Corp to the Windows 3.0 and Apple Computer Inc Macintosh client application development market despite Ingres’ flying start with Windows 4GL. Of course it helps in the leapfrogging game if you buy in technology and Oracle Card is based on the HyperCard paradigm using extensions of technology from Spinnaker Plus. The Card comes with several components: Table Builder, which is a graphical tool to create and manage local and remote database tables; Stack Builder, which is an application generator integrated with the database that prompts the user with lists of tables and options for actions the user wants to perform such as find, save and delete. Using Stack Builder, the first cut of an application can run immediately, enabling end users to create their own applications as well as speeding up development time for professional developers. The Card also offers a Query Builder that helps end users to retrieve information from a database by enabling them dynamically to generate complex queries without knowing any SQL. Data brought down from the database server can then be cut and pasted into the Windows clipboard for use with other applications such as a spreadsheet or a word processor, or it can be put into files for use with other Oracle tools. Also part of the package is an intuitive programming language Oracle Talk, described as an extension of Apple’s HyperTalk, which offers portability of applications between Windows and the Mac, as well as enabling HyperCard applications to be ported to Oracle Card. Extras that are not optional but are not part of the package are: SQL*Net, which enables Oracle Card to access data transparently on any hardware where the Oracle database is supported; and SQL*Connect, which brings data together from non-Oracle databases. The Card for Windows 3.0 is available now, priced at UKP300, Oracle Card for the Macintosh is due in August for the same price and the Oracle Card for Windows Programmer’s Kit, costing UKP150, will also debut in August. The Programmer’s Kit offers developers the ability to call C routines from Oracle Card to create more complex applications. The Card requires 4Mb of memory and supports MS-DOS 3.1 and above and Windows 3.0, or the Mac SE or Mac II – access to an Oracle database or to Oracle for the Macintosh is also essential. As for those claims about multimedia, while Oracle Card can be used to integrate text with graphics and images, it is unlikely that it will be used for animation, video and sound, bearing in mind that the Oracle database does not yet support Binary Large Objects and will only stretch to 2Gb BLOBs in version 7.0 next year – just 30 seconds of sound can take up up 1Gb. In fact Oracle, along with most mainstream relational databases, is never likely to be the database of choice for serious multimedia applications multimedia is the forte of companies like Empress Inc and the object database vendors. With typical swagger Oracle has overstated its case, when it should simply be proud to have one of the first easy to use, graphical client development environments for management information system applications. Happy users include British Airways Plc, SmithKline Beecham Plc, Mercury Communications Ltd and Devon County Council. – Katy Ring
