prompt important announcement from practicalplsql
begin
    dbms_output.put_line('New Open Source Directory For Pl/Sql');
end;
/

Hello, I am still working on getting things set up here at practicalplsql.org. While I am getting things organized, I want to bring your attention to a new resource that I have attached to the site.

The Open Source Project Listing For Pl/Sql

Like any type of writing, good code is all about exposure and practice. As we explore the world of programming we are presented with a myriad of examples of how to do things. Some are good, some are misguided, some are amazing and many are inspiring. If we never see more than one way to do something, we will tend to think that is the only way it can be done. A good student will always work toward expanding their horizons to gain more experience.

Writing excellent and maintainable code is about more than just learning the correct syntax for a language. It also involves understanding how various constructs come together to form a functional codebase. Every time you read an example in the documentation, or a block of code at work, you learn a little bit more about that implementation. When you understand an entire codebase, you can become a subject matter expert in the way that code works. If you can review alternate codebases that do a similar thing in alternate ways, you can determine which ways are better.

The more code you are exposed to, the better you become at understanding and writing code in that language. Seeing code written by different people will also influence the development of your personal style and approach. Because of the robust nature of the language, there is an incredible variety of approaches used by Pl/Sql programmers. And there are some practices that are shared by a great diversity of sources. It is these common threads that we refer to as ‘best practices’.

Every codebase can have hidden gems showing an innovative or elegant way to implement a common design pattern. And every codebase has its dirty little secrets where the code was hastily constructed with little regards for best practices or performance or future maintainability When we broaden our horizons through the extensive review of a variety of codebases, we can find both good approaches to emulate and bad approaches to beware of.

With the advent of the open source movement, many people are sharing what they have learned about database development. This exponentially increases the available learning resources for both the beginning programmer and the advanced expert. Since the challenge with such a vast landscape is in deciding where to start, I have created a reference listing of open source projects relating to Oracle Pl/Sql.

The listing is by no means complete, and I have only reviewed the code within a few of these repositories. I included projects that looked interesting from the perspective of a Pl/Sql programmer. Since database logging and instrumentation is one of my personal focus areas, I gathered several projects that were directed to that topic. Please contact me if you find an open source project that should be included in this listing.

Best Regards

Anthony Harper