When I demonstrate the speed and functionality of Image with Omnidex to an
Oracle person, they are typically astounded! In fact, they usually go into
acute denial.

To an Oracle zealot, and most Oracle people do seem to be zealots (unlike
HP3000 people :), you simply can't get instantaneous response using a
partial key that isn't at the beginning of a search field with the wildcard
on the end. If you do, it's smoke and mirrors.

Having said that, we have built applications that had requirements that
exceed the functionality of Image - at least to my knowledge but I'm no
Image expert.

In one case, long, variable length text fields were required. Even Oracle
restricted us to one long per table which caused some design compromises. A
future project includes storing 2D CAD files in a database. How do you do
this with Image?

Maybe someone can enlighten me but I contend that both Image and databases
like Oracle have a legitimate place. Yes Oracle is bloated. Yes is it
complicated and requires an absurd amount of attention. Talk about blowing
chunks: Oracle's development tools are at the bottom of the heap. But could
I slide Image/SQL underneath all of the apps we've developed? I can't see
it.

Don't get me wrong, I really dislike Oracle the company. I can't think of
another company that is more arrogant and Larry Ellison is a bonafide
nutcase. But I think our bias is showing rather strong here.

--
Brad Feazell