To Oracle or NOT to Oracle

[pmalone2 at csc.com]

 Gentlemen,
       I've been following this list for about two months now and can safely say
that I am a "beginner" at designing XML anythings. If I'm asking too basic a
question please don't hesitate to tell me, or steer me to someplace else better
suited <g>.
       My situation is this...the company that I work for wants a project done
in XML, it is not overly complicated, but it poses some problems for me. 1) They
want this project to be a "learning" project and for me to master XML (no
pressure!) so I can do more complex projects. 2) No one here knows anymore XML
than I do (which isn't alot) and nothing they have worked on has anything at all
to do with the way this project has to work.
       Now, at this point I don't have much in the way of software for working
with XML although I have downloaded "ALOT" of demos that I thought would help.
But alas, most of them won't do the trick. Especially since I have to create
this project for the government and it will be residing on a Netscape Enterprise
Server.
        I thought that it might be a big help to me if I could get a "complete"
set of XML tools with step by step instructions to walk me through some examples
of using XML from start to finish....maybe using a database (which would work
well for my first project), or something else. To date I've looked at
"Bluestones" Visual XML, and where that is a nice looking bit of fluff with a
great Java interface, it seems to require too much proprietary software (mainly
it's bluestone server) for me to use comfortably, and a few pieces of software
that they don't even make to run it (i.e. Xtrans). So, I look to Oracle 8i, and
it seems to have everything in it I need....but will it work well with Netscape
Enterprise Server???? I'm prepared to get this software (my company now uses
Oracle 7), but I need to make sure there are no exteme minuses for using this on
the Enterprise Server.
       If Oracle isn't the answer...any suggestions???
       I've tried getting books on XML, but most seem to base their examples on
using the Microsoft software that uses "data islands" which evidently I can't
use since I"m gonna be using the Enterprise Server......I have had Zero luck in
finding ANY helpful Developers books that give me the information I need. Any
suggestions here???? There do appear to be two books being published soon on
using XML with the Enterprise Server (I saw them on Amazon.com) but they aren't
available yet.
       Any suggestions would be helpful at this time.....and if it isn't a
problem, in a future message, lay out what I'm trying to do (especially if
Oracle or Bluestone isn't what I want) and get some suggestions.
           Thanks!!!!   Pete Malone



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