In this book we’ve concentrated on open source applications for end users (particularly GUI and web-based applications) and on open source server software (such as Apache). However, we’re also starting to see some interesting middleware developments linking open source programs to commercial systems. One of the most fertile areas is that of Oracle PL/SQL. PL/SQL is Oracle’s procedural language based on SQL. It’s a very popular and powerful language used by Oracle Corporation and developers everywhere. This short appendix can’t do justice to all the activity going on today, but we will try to give you the flavor of a few of the most interesting open source developments we’ve seen.
PLNet is a project inspired by the Perl CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) project (described briefly in Chapter 2). The goal is to develop and maintain a repository containing a large collection of reusable PL/SQL software and documentation written by and for the global PL/SQL development community. PLNet is the brainchild of Bill Pribyl, coauthor (with Steven Feuerstein) of Oracle PL/SQL Programming, considered by many to be the bible of PL/SQL development.
PLNet is still in a very early stage, but you can watch its development at this site:
| http://plnet.org |
If you are interested in being part of this exciting project, check out:
| http://plnet.sourceforge.net |
As Bill points out, if you assume that there are one million PL/SQL programmers in the world, then even if only one hundredth of one percent contribute to the repository, that’s 100 contributors right there. We hope that many more developers jump on board.
Quite a bit of useful material has already been committed to the effort. Here is a sampling of things slated for access through PLNet.org:
Chapters and scripts from various PL/SQL books (and since, between them, Steven and Bill have written what we consider to be the best books around, this should give the rest of us plenty to work with)
The MD5 message digest algorithm for security; you can find more on cryptography and other PL/SQL resources at the PL/SQL Cellar at:
| http://www.gt.ed.net/keith/plsql/ |
Source code for PL/Vision Lite, a code library developed by Steven Feuerstein that consists of more than 60 packages (containing 1,000-plus procedures and functions) that perform a myriad of useful tasks in PL/SQL applications
Relevant content from Steven Feuerstein’s older PL/SQL articles
Initially, PLNet.org contains just high-level summary information and links to the contributed software modules. The eventual goal is to provide a rich catalog of information to aid in searching and to keep the reusable PL/SQL modules—and possibly even the metadata—physically distributed across the Internet. One way this might be achieved is by creating an XML-based description of each module, relying on the same principles that have made Netscape’s RSS (Rich Site Summary) a wildly successful standard for distributing news, discussions, and product announcements as information “channels.” (For an example, see http://www.oreillynet.com/meerkat).
Other future goals for the PLNet project include the following:
Ensuring maximum ease for the repository submission procedures
Developing a one-step extraction and installation process for PL/SQL modules that automatically handles code dependencies
Influencing Oracle to provide language features to better support sharing of PL/SQL
We’re hoping the PLNet project will ramp up into something massive. If you’d like to help with this effort, get on over to Bill’s place.