SQLTools++ for Oracle

Thanks for such a detailled and clear response.

I'm not a software developper (I'm just a DBA), and I'm not able to
qualify the complexity of a statically linked executable. In that case (or
with Instant clien install) my concern was more about additionnal steps
needed to resolve NLS_LANG setting during installation.

If that way doesn't prevents the use of an oracle client, perhaps that
http://www.devart.com/odac/ could help to work as oracmd or some other ODBC
drivers.

Regards
PAscal

Pascal,

apologies for the delay.

It has taken me some time to read through some documentation regarding
this and I don't think that the "Instant Client" can be embedded the way
you're suggesting. You can link to the "Instant Client" by downloading the
SDK part of the "Instant Client" but that doesn't mean that you get an
client embedded. You still require a client then, and it doesn't matter if
this is an "Instant Client" or a normal client installation.

In addition I have to admit that I personally don't like the idea of
having a statically linked in Oracle client library, because the Oracle
Client software also has some bugs and features are added with each
version.

So the only approach I could imagine is to have it linked in (if it was
possible) but optionally use an external client in order to be able to take
advantage of any bug fixes/new features available.

Furthermore I think it is very easy - in case you really want to have a
prepackaged, stand-alone version of SQLTools++ that can work in an
environment where no installation is possible and you don't have an Oracle
client installed - to create an archive that contains the SQLTools++ files
(available for download here at Sourceforge.net) plus the "Instant client"
files by creating a "merged" archive of both.

This way you get a kind of "embedded" client as you can extract this
archive wherever you want without the need to have anything Oracle related
available at your destination and then run SQLTools++ using the "Instant
Client" contained in your archive.

If you have any information available that confirms that the "embedded"
client approach is actually possible I'm still curious to get hold of that.
So just let me know. (I don't mean the information that there are
applications out there that don't need an Oracle Client like "OraCmd" that
you've mentioned. They could have implemented their own minimal "client"
OCI emulation, like there are some commercial ODBC drivers out there I
think that also don't require an Oracle Client).

Best Regards,
Randolf