Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8, Second Edition

Acknowledgments

Each of the authors has arrived at this collaboration through a different path, but we would all like to thank the team at O’Reilly for making this book both possible and a joy to write. At the top of the list is Debby Russell, who was able to leverage her robust scalability throughout the deployment of this work (go edit that one!). Debby not only helped to create this book, but believed in the concept enough to take it on as a project—twice over. We are lucky to have her as an editor and a friend. The rest of the O’Reilly crew also deserve a lot of credit, especially Rachel Wheeler, the production editor; Rob Romano, who developed the figures; and John Bickelhaupt, who wrote the index. It’s incredible how they were able to strike the perfect balance—always there when we needed something, but leaving us alone when we didn’t.

We’re all grateful to each other. Giving birth to a book is a difficult process, but it can be harrowing when split three ways. Everyone hung in there and did their best throughout this process. We’d also like to give our sincere thanks to the technical reviewers for this book: Craig Shallahamer of OraPub, Jonathan Gennick, Jenny Gelhausen, and Dave Klein. This somewhat thankless, but crucially important, work really enhanced the value of the book you’re reading.

Rick thanks the incredibly bright and gifted people who have shared their wealth of knowledge with him over the years, including Bruce Scott, Earl Stahl, Jerry Chang, and Jim Milbery. In particular, he thanks the two individuals who have been his technical mentors over the course of his entire career: Ed Hickland and Dave Klein, who have repeatedly spent time explaining to and discussing with him some of the broader and finer points of database technology. Finally, Rick would like to thank David Rogelberg and all the folks at Studio B for helping to make this project a reality.

For the second edition of this book Rick would also like to thank all those colleagues at Oracle who helped him in his time of need, checking on those last-minute 9i clarifications. And a special thank you to Jenny Tsai-Smith, who always seemed to have the time and knowledge to clear up any Oracle database problem.

Robert acknowledges all his friends over the years around the world at Oracle Corporation, IBM, Harris Computer Systems, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Through personal relationships and email, they have shared a lot and provided him with incredible opportunities for learning. He’d also like to thank his customers, who have always had the most practical experience using the products and tools he has worked with and from whom he will continue to learn.

Jonathan thanks Murray Golding, an excellent friend and Oracle practitioner, for his insights and analogies; Sam Mele, a true friend, for plucking him from the “frozen North” and opening doors; and the Oracle Server Technologies members and their teams, including Juan Tellez, Ron Weiss, Juan Loaiza, Carol Colrain, and George Lumpkin, for their help during his years at Oracle.