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| Preface |

## About the Disk

The content of the companion PC disk that accompanies this book has been included on this CD, in the /guide8i/disk/ directory. It contains the Companion Utilities Reference for the Guide to Oracle8i Features, an online tool developed by RevealNet, Inc., that gives you point-and-click access to the source code I developed while writing this book. (Many of the code examples are also printed in the book.) I've included this code to give you a jump start on writing your own Oracle8i PL /SQL code and to keep you from having to type many pages of PL /SQL statements from printed text.

In addition to the code examples, I've included a trimmed-down version of the PLVtmr package. I use this package in my testing of program performance. This package is part of the RevealNet PL/Vision code library. You can download the free, Lite version of PL/Vision or try out a fully functioned Professional version by visiting http://www.revealnet.com. The version of PLVtmr on the companion disk can be installed independently of the rest of PL/Vision.

The appendix, Appendix A, Appendix: What's on the Companion Disk?, describes how to install the Windows-based Companion Reference. You can run the software in any Microsoft Windows environment. If you are working in a non-Windows environment, you can obtain a compressed file containing the utilities on the disk from the RevealNet PL /SQL Pipeline Archives at http://www.revealnet.com/plsql-pipeline.

About the Examples |  | Conventions Used in This Book

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