That big Internet project I was so psyched about earlier has now fallen through and my boss wants to pull me into the database side of things. He just gave me a book printed in 1995 about PL/SQL and wants me to start coding into the Oracle database. And this after just having given myself a crash course in Java, HTML (can you believe it, I never took the time to learn HTML until now!), and JSPs. I don’t know much about PL/SQL, but I gather it isn’t object oriented and moving over to work in it feels like the kiss of death for my career. Anybody out there who can give me a more rational opinion on how I should be feeling about being moved into this new language?

Run, don't walk.

You didn't specify the direction.

I've heard that Oracle is phasing out PL/SQL in favor of ... something. Java, maybe? Yeah. Java. That might just be a rumor, though.

You didn't specify the direction.

I believe he's confirming my fears.

I've heard that Oracle is phasing out PL/SQL in favor of ... something. Java, maybe?

What I just got through teaching myself is how to use all of their bc4j components to put all of the business logic in a middle tier instead of in the database. For this it was all Java. I’m not sure how this relates to “phasing out” PL/SQL. The bc4j/ Jsp stuff looked fairly up-and-coming as I learned, but of course the authors of the books would tend to leave that impression. Heck, the PL/SQL book (again, published in 1995) talks about how up-and-coming PL/SQL is.

The project he wants me on is in Oracle Forms, which I know Oracle is phasing out soon. This is one of the first things that sent flags up.

Man this stinks. I was just getting excited about learning something new.

Well, PL/SQL knowledge will probably be needed for quite some time, if for no other reason then because of enormous amount of it in existing Oracle apps (they tend to solve all their tool, performance and lack-of-feature problems with stored procedures in PL/SQL ). Forms are going (and good riddance!), but then, COBOL, FORTRAN and RPG people are still earning their living...

As I understand it, and I'm not a database guy, PL/SQL is used almost excusively for embedding functions within the database. What do they call it? Embedded Procedures?

Anyway, recent versions of Oracle have also allowed Java to do the exact same thing, and some reports claim that they're promoting Java in favor of PL/SQL. But there's a lot of PL/SQL out there, and I doubt that it'll go away very soon.

I'm not really familiar with the language, but stuff I've read claims that its ``language syntax, structure and data types are similar to that of ADA. The PL/SQL language includes object oriented programming techniques such as encapsulation, function overloading, information hiding (all but inheritance). PL/SQL is commonly used to write data-centric programs to manipulate data in an Oracle database.''

Man this stinks. I was just getting excited about learning something new.

Don't fret. The whole "up and coming" and "new and exciting" thing only goes so far. At some point, managers just want technology that *works*. Especially in an economy where businesses don't have money to throw around for the latest and greatest technology which may or may not have a visible effect on the bottom line. I love learning new things, too, but at some point, I'm more interested in learning things that I enjoy, and less interested in learning new things that are new and sexy. Don't dismiss PL/SQL until you've given it a shot. Learning PL/SQL is not going to be a death sentence for your career. Heck, my company is converting Java programmers to COBOL programmers because the heart of our company is still our mainframe, despite all the mid-tier stuff that's crept in over the years. Now, I'm not rushing to become a COBOL convert, but some people welcomed the change. Languages and technologies don't have to be new to be a joy to use.

I'm more interested in learning things that I enjoy, and less interested in learning new things that are new and sexy

Ah, didn't mean to leave the impression that I'm looking for "new and sexy." I just got all fired up learning about JSPs and the other stuff when the client pulled the plug on the project. This does feel like a step backwards after all that, but again I'm not sure how rational that feeling is. Your advice is well taken, and in fact is what my boss has told me: "don't be afraid to try something new." What I'm afraid of is learning something old. I'm already an expert in one language that appears to be fading away (Delphi).

Thanks everyone who responded here. As you no doubt have observed I am a rather excitable person who can make mountains out of molehills very easily. I am realizing now that this is probably at least some of a good thing, as I've been sitting here twiddling my thumbs (and making some rather longwinded posts) for the last three months. Anything new can't hurt, especially when it's getting experience with something like Oracle. Also, I've seen that PL/SQL is probably the right tool to do certain things. I'm still not totally happy with moving to database work, but it can only help me become a more well rounded programmer, and after all, I have been looking for a next step.