Preface

This book introduces the features and functionality of Oracle8i. It describes new features, options, and enhancements; and it includes feature and option matrixes to identify what is available with each specific product configuration (Oracle8i, Oracle8i Enterprise Edition, or Oracle8i Personal Edition). It references the documentation that is available for Oracle8i and identifies deprecated or desupported features.

This preface contains the following sections:

• Intended Audience

• How this Book is Organized

• How to Use This Book

• What's New

• Related Documents

• Your Comments Are Welcome

Intended Audience

This book is addressed to anyone who would like to become familiar with Oracle8i. While it provides an overview of Oracle8i, it is intended for those who want to identify and develop an understanding of its enhancements, new features, and options.

How this Book is Organized

This book is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, "Overview"	This chapter contains an introduction to Oracle8i.
Chapter 2, "Oracle 8i Release 2 (8.1.6) New Features"	This chapter contains summaries of the new features provided in Oracle8i, release 2 (8.1.6). Some additional products that complement or enhance the functionality of Oracle8i are also discussed.
Chapter 3, "Oracle 8i (8.1.5) New Features"	This chapter contains summaries of the new features provided in Oracle8i, release 8.1.5. Some additional products that complement or enhance the functionality of Oracle8i are also discussed.
Chapter 4, "Release 8.0 New Features and Options"	This chapter summarizes Oracle8 features. This summary is important because many of the Oracle8i features enhance or extend functionality introduced in Oracle8.
Chapter 5, "Oracle8i Feature and Option Availability"	This chapter contains feature matrixes that present the availability and packaging of features and options contained in Oracle8i.
Chapter 6, "Oracle8i Documentation"	This chapter describes the contents of the Oracle8i documentation set.
Chapter 7, "Deprecated and Desupported Features"	This chapter lists the deprecated and desupported features that a user should be aware of when migrating to Oracle8i.
Glossary	This chapter contains definitions of terms, most of which are new to Oracle8i.

How to Use This Book

Chapter 2, "Oracle 8i Release 2 (8.1.6) New Features" describes new features and enhancements. For more information, see the documentation that is cross-referenced in the description.

Oracle8i contains a subset of the features and options that are available in Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i Personal Edition. You can refer to the matrixes in Chapter 5, "Oracle8i Feature and Option Availability" to determine whether a particular option or feature is available for your product configuration.

What's New

The following books are new to the release 2 (8.1.6) generic documentation set:

• Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide

• Oracle8i Application Developer's Guide - Object-Relational Features

• Oracle8i Data Warehousing Guide

  In addition to the new data warehouse features, this books contains the data warehouse and parallel execution material that was in the release 8.1.5 Oracle8i Tuning manual.

• Oracle8i Supplied Java Packages Reference

  This book describes some of the Oracle-supplied Java packages. It complements the 8.1.5 Oracle8i Supplied Packages Reference, which has been renamed in release 2 to Oracle8i Supplied PL/SQL Packages Reference.

The 8.1.5 Oracle8i Backup and Recovery Guide has been divided into three books for release 8.1.6:

• Oracle8i Backup and Recovery Guide

• Oracle8i Recovery Manager User's Guide and Reference

• Oracle8i Standby Database Concepts and Administration

The 8.1.5 Oracle8i Parallel Server Concepts and Administration has been divided into two books for release 8.1.6:

• Oracle8i Parallel Server Concepts

• Oracle8i Parallel Server Administration, Deployment, and Performance

The 8.1.5 Oracle8i Tuning book has been renamed in 8.1.6 to Oracle8i Designing and Tuning for Performance.

Documentation for Oracle Enterprise Manager is now included as part of the generic documentation set. For book titles in this documentation set, see Chapter 6, "Oracle8i Documentation".

In release 2 (8.1.6), the interMedia, Spatial, Time Series, and Visual Image Retrieval product names start with Oracle, not Oracle8i. For example, in release 8.1.5, the spatial product was called Oracle8i Spatial; however, in release 8.1.6, it is called Oracle Spatial.

Related Documents

While this book identifies enhancements, new features, and options for Oracle8i, release 2 (8.1.6), it does not attempt to identify every new or changed initialization parameter, data dictionary table, view, command, package, etc. Such information should be available from the cross-referenced documentation.

Some general references for finding such information include:

Oracle8i Migration	For a complete list of all new Oracle8i initialization parameters, static data dictionary tables, and dynamic performance views (V$ views). Many initialization parameters have been added, changed, or dropped in this release.
Oracle8i Supplied PL/SQL Packages Reference and Oracle8i Supplied Java Packages Reference	New packages are included, or cross-referenced, in these books.
Oracle8i Reference	This is the complete Oracle8i reference for the following: Initialization Parameters Static Data Dictionary Views Dynamic Performance (V$) Views Database Limits SQL Scripts Oracle Wait Events Enqueue and Lock Names Statistics Descriptions
Oracle8i SQL Reference	This is the complete reference of SQL statements. It identifies all new Oracle8i statements.

Your Comments Are Welcome

We value and appreciate your comments as an Oracle user and reader of our references. As we write, revise, and evaluate, your opinions are the most important input we receive. At the front of this reference is a Reader's Comment Form that we encourage you to use to tell us both what you like and what you dislike about this (or other) Oracle manuals. If the form is missing, or if you would like to contact us, then please use the following address or fax number:

Server Technologies Information Development Manager

Oracle Corporation

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FAX: [phone]

You can also e-mail your comments to the Information Development department at the following e-mail address: [e-mail]