[SGVLUG] Are there any oracle gurus on this list?

[Greg Stark]

Tom, 
>Toad is relatively expensive--a couple of thousand a license, I think--,
but if your employer
>will spring for it, it is worth the investment.  If you use Toad, you'll be
able to fake it
>as an Oracle DBA a whole lot better than if you used straight scripts or
Oracle's own Java-
>based administrative GUI's; and odds are the money won't go to waste since
the long-term DBA
>will also want to use it.  Toad is a really slick tool, but it's not all
just superficial
>eye-candy.  For example, rather than simply generating SQL/DDL/DML text and
executing it out
>of sight, as many GUI's are prone to do, Toad allows you to
review/modify/save/etc.
>all such commands before they are sent to the server, and to save the
script as part of an
>annotated audit trail.  It's nothing you couldn't do yourself with scripts
and a source
>control system, provided you had time to slog through 3000 pages of PDF
files....  The beauty
>of GUI tools is interface discoverability, and with Oracle there's a whole
lot you need to
>discover!

Mark Echeverri is quite right.  Toad is a great development tool, and much
better than having to use Oracle Enterprise Manager and SQLplus Client.  I
won't say it will make this project a cake walk.  Considering the magnitude
of what you need to do, you may find it a tool you can't live without.  I
believe they have a 30 trial version.  Worth trying. 

Greg