Oracle has issued a toolkit to help Microsoft
programmers use Visual Studio .NET 2003 software to write
Oracle Database 10g applications on the Windows operating system.
Released as a beta, Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET is a software plug-in that
provides better integration between Oracle’s database and Visual Studio
.NET, the Redmond, Wash., software giant’s popular development platform.
Oracle and Microsoft are fierce rivals in the database market, as Microsoft’s
SQL Server competes with Database 10g. Still, they have
made working together a priority to benefit customers, many of whom use
software from both companies. Oracle’s database already works with 32-bit
and 64-bit Windows Server 2003.
“The [plug-in] highlights the commitment to meet the needs of mutual
customers and the Oracle/Windows development community,” Oracle said in a
statement, underscoring the competitive cooperation.
The production version of Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET is
slated for the second quarter.
The release of the plug-in revisits Oracle’s May 2004 promise to improve the
way its software works with the leading platform of one of its biggest
rivals, by joining
the Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program.
Oracle later announced that Oracle Database 10g Release 2, scheduled for a mid-2005 release,
would include Oracle Database Extensions for .NET. This will consist of .NET
support via stored procedures implemented using common language runtime.
The added support will make it possible for developers to write .NET stored
procedures and deploy them within an Oracle database without having to write
PL/SQL commands. This cuts down on the time it takes for developers to write
.NET applications.
The news comes against a backdrop of Microsoft’s VSLive! 2005
developer show in San Francisco this week. At the show, Microsoft executives
provided color for developments in the company’s Longhorn subsystem Avalon
and its service-oriented architecture (SOA)
called Indigo.
Oracle Programs New Windows Support
