Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages

Acknowledgments

This book is very much a product of my imagination, grounded in the realities and possibilities of the PL/SQL language. Vague technical fantasies can be translated into packages only with a freedom of time and spirit. Many people helped in many ways to provide me with this freedom.

Bill Hinman, President and CEO of SSC, has supported me fully and encouraged me strenuously from the day I joined his consulting company. I am especially grateful for the weeks of straight writing time I was able to enjoy in the final stages of writing this book. Barrie Hinman, CFO of SSC, has been invaluable in managing the many details of our growing organization and my scattered activities. Hugo Toledo, author of Oracle Networking, made many things possible for me over the past year, from helping me with the installation of Oracle Server 7.3 for Windows NT to directing me to the executable which made it possible to print my training materials in "pure black and white." Hugo is my "answer man" and he'll never understand how deeply he is appreciated.

My technical reviewers played a critical role in turning my many hundreds of pages of somewhat raw text into a useful book (I hope). Brian Shelden of Symantec has been an enthusiastic booster and, much more importantly, tester of my concepts and code. Thomas Dunbar of WebCys again provided many excellent criticisms of my text and approach, forcing me to clarify concepts and justify techniques. Bert Scalzo showed an early and steady willingness ...