Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference

Steven Feuerstein is considered one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language. He is also the author of Oracle PL/SQL Programming (O'Reilly & Associates, Second Edition, 1997), Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages (O'Reilly & Associates, 1996). and Oracle Built-in Packages (O'Reilly & Associates, 1998). Steven has been developing software since 1980 and worked for Oracle Corporation from 1987 to 1992. He is a partner with RevealNet, Inc. (www.revealnet.com) and is the chief architect of the RevealNet products, PL/SQL Knowledge Base and PL/Vision (a code library of prebuilt PL/SQL packages which accelerates PL/SQL-based application development). Steven also sysops RevealNet's "PL/SQL Pipeline," an online community for PL/SQL developers (www.revealnet.com/plsql-pipeline). He can be reached through email at feuerstein@revealnet.com. Steven is also President of PL/Solutions, which offers training and consulting on both PL/Vision and PL/SQL (www.plsolutions.com). Finally (on the Oracle side of Steven's life), he serves as codirector of the Oracle Practice at SSC, a systems management consulting firm based in Chicago (www.saraswati.com). Steven shares his Rogers Park, Chicago Georgian with his wife Veva, his youngest son Eli, two cats (Sister Itsacat and Moshe Jacobawitz), and Mercury (the Congo Red African Gray parrot). His older son, Chris, is busy making music and creating art nearby. Steven is a member of the Board of Directors of the Crossroads Fund, which provides grants to organizations in Chicago working for social change. Bill Pribyl, founder and principal of DataCraft, Inc. (www.datacraft.com), has been learning and teaching about Oracle databases and applications for more than ten years. His work with object-oriented technology dates to the mid-1980s, when he coauthored a paper on the application of entity-relationship modeling to object-oriented analysis. A self-avowed Oracle "generalist," Bill has served as an Oracle database administrator for several billion-dollar companies; led the development of web-based database applications for online commerce; configured an ultra-high availability database using Oracle replication; helped NASA apply database technology to space shuttle simulation software; and developed and taught classes in PL/SQL, Developer/2000, and the Oracle database. An ardent supporter of the Oracle user community, Bill is past chair of the South Central (USA) Oracle Users Group. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Select, the quarterly publication of the International Oracle Users Group-Americas. His work has been published in Oracle user group publications worldwide. He also authored JavaScript programming examples for The Official Netscape LiveWire Pro Book. Bill lives near his alma mater, Rice University, in Houston, Texas with his wife Norma, son Johnny, stepson Geoffrey, four cats, and a deaf Dalmatian. He volunteer teaches a class on the Internet and beginning HTML to children in public middle school. Chip Dawes has been building and maintaining systems on relational databases since 1988 and with Oracle since 1990. He is currently a consultant with D&D Technologies, a Chicago consultancy. He enjoys working with, lecturing on, and writing about Oracle database administration, client server application development, and UNIX system administration. Chip is an Oracle Certified Professional and earned computer science and aerospace engineering degrees from St. Louis University. He can often be seen presenting at various Oracle User Group conferences. Chip lives happily in Chicagoland with his wife, Mary, his sons, Zachary and Charlie, and his dog, Rex. He can be reached at chip@ddtechnologies.com.