Oracle Forms • The design process of an input form New 4GL tool produces its times of this length are somewhat unusual should be interactive and easily modified. for other development tools. • Users should be guided dynamically first success stories through the input form at runtime. According to Michael Ferrante, Principal Pro- is stronger than time • The runtime engine should perform the IAF and RPT were a hit with Larry Ellison, and duct Manager responsible for Oracle Forms, transaction to the database dynamical- were a factor in expansion of the customer the following features are likely for the pen- ly. The developer of the form should base. Everyone, from the CIA to the Bank of ding versions (19/20): be able to perform standard Insert, America, major oil and gas companies, down to small IT consulting businesses now develo- Frank Hoffmann, Cologne Data GmbH Update, Locking, Delete and Query • REST call-up functions for external transactions without having to program ped „forms and reports“. services anything. In the event of an error, roll- At that time, customers were still tied com- • Support for SSO with FSAL back should be possible. In addition, all pletely to the database manufacturer and • Identity Cloud Service support SQL commands should be executed in were unable to develop software applications • OAuth support the correct sequence. of their own. Data input with UFI (later SQL- • UI improvements (frames, colors, cus- • End users should be able to perform PLUS) or the new C-API was not user-friendly. tom color scheme) even complex queries themselves by • Configurable Java versions for FSAL using relational operators such as „<“, Now however, customers could both model • Support for Java 11 FSAL (e.g. Java 11+) a database of their own and create it physi- This year, Oracle celebrates an impressive double anniversary: 40 years of ORACLE databases and Forms Bill Friend, „>“, „LIKE“, and in conjunction with • Forms Builder integration with FSAL other variables. cally with UFI, and develop user-friendly in- (currently only http plugin) Oracle‘s fifth member of staff after Bruce Scott (#1004), had been tasked by Larry Ellision in 1979 with developing • The implementation should preserve put forms and reports using IAF/RPT. Further tools developed by Bill were added in the the famous software tool. Before Christmas of the same year, Oracle released the first commercial version of Forms the logic of the relational model, with Together with the changes already published form of EXP/IMP, which enabled databases transactional integrity. in Forms 12, Forms developers will then have together with the first commercial Oracle Database and the first Reports tool two years later. to be exported and migrated. Bill also integ- • User-friendly data input of relationships a range of features at their disposal in Forms rated the „DATE, TIME and TIMESTAMP“ data to other tables should also be possible 19 with which to give their forms a facelift. types into the database, since time data is Mercedes advertised its 1979 G-Class with Motorola 68000 processors. These develop- A simple task given to Bill by by means of „lists of values“. Forms can and should become more profes- often very important during data acquisition. the claim „Stronger than time“—a slogan ments all laid the foundations for future de- • Pre- and post-logic triggers should be sional in their layout, without gray shades, Larry Ellison became ORACLE The result was a cohesive overall package. In that could also be applied to Oracle Forms. velopments by Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, developed for automated SQL trans- with high contrast, and with color palettes 1985 Sohaib Abbasi became resonsible for The ensuing software evolution has already and the spread of the Internet. Forms actions, to enable the SQL logic to be from which the users benefit. lasted 40 years. The module code from ASCII extended with procedural functionality. Oracle Forms. He made Forms the tool we know today. He brought PL/SQL into it long to XML. Support for Java versions from 1 to Oracle‘s first C tools appear Besides familiarizing himself with C, Bill • The best aspects of two worlds were to A further new option will be the outplace- before the DATABASE and made it even more 11, database support for the versions 2.3 to Around this time, a young developer was Friend also got to grips with the new rela- be combined: Dynamically generated ment of Forms development and deployment productive. Many Forms developers are still 19 and Windows support from 3.1 to 2016, looking for a job. His name was Bill Friend, tional database system, working closely with SQL with transaction management, and to the ORACLE Cloud. In a very new develop- working in projects that started in 1999 with together with Linux, Solaris and AIX support. and he did what other job-seekers usually Bruce Scott. Within a couple of months he facility for use of procedural extensions ment described in a white paper in Novem- a version of his that is still in production. The tool has kept pace with these changes did in those days: he grabbed the Yellow Pa- was familiar not only with C, but also with with runtime triggers for application lo- ber 2018, Mike Ferrante presents the new op- Forms for the Internet was designed in his every stage along the way, but without users ges, flicked through to „Data Processing“, and the database technology and the DB APIs. gic. (SYSTEM-R triggers were an ORACLE portunities for Forms development (DEVOPS) time too. The idea to have a stateless client as having to re-write their existing code—a huge looked for suitable companies. Under „S“, his He then had to figure out for himself exactly vision and were not yet implemented in the cloud. (See annex for link.) The author Java Applet and a stateful server process with benefit. Standard 4GL functions such as row eye fell on „Software Development Labs“. A what his tasks were going to be. In this peri- in the database; they appeared first in will present a paper on the subject of Oracle a solid SQLNET connection is still a powerful locking, binding, and use of PL/SQL in the company with three founding members and od, no one at Oracle was supervised, much Forms). Cloud at the next Forms Day. current database also represent huge advan- a talented developer named Bruce Scott less told exactly what to do. Everyone in the • The tool should be portable to all ope- engine today and probably the only pure PL/ SQL tool which does not need extensions. It tages over any other PL/SQL tool. in their employ. Bill Friend‘s first phone call company did what they did best, and with a rating systems. Let‘s start giving some thought to the 50th is nearly impossibe to replace Forms. It was was answered by Bob Miner. When asked by passion. Bill however had no specific project • A „CRT“ form should make the system Forms anniversary in 2029. It‘s a fitting time to look back to the begin- Bill about a job, Bob replied: „We‘re creating of his own, and so he went to Larry and asked compatible with a range of monitors tried many times without real success. For nings of Oracle Forms, in order to understand the first commercial relational database ma- for one. Larry responded by saying that the the last 15 years there were many attempts (e.g. 24x80 character grid on a cathode Additional Information the reasons why it was created. Tips from nagement system, we‘re doing it on DEC PDP company needed a more user-friendly way of ray tube monitor). to do it. In the interviews some good answers Michael Ferrante and social media led me to minicomputers in assembly language, but we writing data to the database than by means • Input was also to be possible on tele- are given to find answers to this question. Interesting version table with release dates Bill Friend, the developer of the original versi- want to rewrite it in C for portability. We need of an „INSERT“ command. Bill, he suggested, types, since not every workstation was of the Oracle databases on, and I had the privilege of interviewing him someone who can write some tools for the could perhaps program a „prompt“ to be di- equipped with a monitor at this time. Bill and Sohaib left as VP and SVP Tool divi- in detail on the subject. At 60, he is still very li- thing“. splayed for each database column. And that sion and were probably one main reason for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Data- base vely and can recall numerous details from the was how it started. Starting from these very Using the full range of possibilities offered by the success of ORACLE in the first 20 years. early days of Forms. With a 9-hour difference Bill drove to Sand Hill Circle in Menlo Park for vague instructions, Bill produced a detailed C, Bill Friend developed the first version of White paper on DEVOPS for Oracle Forms in between our time zones, we agreed to talk in his interview, and was invited to lunch with concept that went much further than simply Oracle Forms within a little over 4 weeks. Larry Forms now, in 2019 the ORACLE Cloud (November 2018) the late afternoon (CET). Bob Miner and Larry Ellison. Once Bob had satisfying Larry‘s request. Ellision named the product IAF (Interactive Ap- https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/deve- demonstrated a couple of database queries plication Facility). The name was subsequent- Many Forms customers have switched to the loper-tools/forms/documentation/oracle- The story that follows and the interview are using UFI (User Friendly Interface—a fore- Bill‘s basic concept for Oracle Forms 1979 ly changed, first to „Fastforms“, then to „SQL condensed from information provided by runner of SQL Plus) and Bill had described Bill‘s intention was to make life easier for current platform (12.2.1.3), are launching „na- forms-in-dcs-5216022.pdf Forms“, until it finally became „Oracle Forms tive“ modernizations, and are looking ahead Bill Friend and an interview conducted at the his programming experience to Bob and the forms developer and forms user, and and Reports“ (from Version 3 onwards).