Wow, DB2 for LUW 9.5 copycatted almost all the Oracle SQL syntaxeven including (+) for out join!

A list of the add-ins per my memory:

1) DUAL;
2) NVL()
3) DECODE()
4) START WITH/CONNECT BY PRIOR/sudo column LEVEL for tree structure SQL that prior DB2 9.5 could not do it in SQL while Oracle does it by just one simple SQL
5)(+) for outer join
6)TO_CHAR()/TO_DATE()/...
7)LPAD/RPAD that might be added in DB2 9 if I did not remember wrong
8)Drop a cloumn from a table
...

I worry that IBM may get law suit by Oracle?

John Feng

John Feng wrote:
> A list of the add-ins per my memory:
>
> 1) DUAL;
> 2) NVL()
> 3) DECODE()
> 4) START WITH/CONNECT BY PRIOR/sudo column LEVEL for tree structure SQL that prior DB2 9.5 could not do it in SQL while Oracle does it by just one simple SQL
> 5)(+) for outer join
> 6)TO_CHAR()/TO_DATE()/...
> 7)LPAD/RPAD that might be added in DB2 9 if I did not remember wrong
> 8)Drop a cloumn from a table
> ..
>
> I worry that IBM may get law suit by Oracle?
>
> John Feng
>
>
I wouldn't worry about it. It's likely due to the demand from former
Oracle customers switching to DB2 for ease of migration.

L

I worry that IBM may get law suit by Oracle?
Hi,
why should IBM get a law suit? Did IBM steal source code? No. IBM just implemented his own code to support Oracle functionalities.
Regards,
IgorM

I wouldn't worry about it. It's likely due to the demand from former
Oracle customers switching to DB2 for ease of migration.
There is also one more thing to note: if application developer creates application that works on DB2 it will also work on Oracle.

igor.mernik-at-alcad.si wrote:

>> I worry that IBM may get law suit by Oracle?
>
> why should IBM get a law suit? Did IBM steal source code? No. IBM just
> implemented his own code to support Oracle functionalities. Regards,

You assume that law suits come only because of stealing code. This is,
naturally, not true. You can be dragged into law suits because of pretty
much anything.

Will the additional functionality become a problem for IBM? I surely don't
know. My gut feeling says "no". After all, both products implement
similar functionality and there is always a lot of room for overlaps.

--
Knut Stolze
DB2 z/OS Utilities Development
IBM Germany

You assume that law suits come only because of stealing code. This is,
naturally, not true. You can be dragged into law suits because of pretty
much anything.
You are right. You can get law suits for pretty much anything, but the main question is who will win law suit. The NLV function for example is not a trademark or something like that. So if IBM implements NLV function I can't see any law breaking.

If Oracle is smart it will say like this: IBM supported this new functionalities, why? Because he would like to be No. 1 in RDBMS. And who is No. 1? Oracle. So you can now easily migrate to Oracle.

But my opinion is: I don't expect too much customers switching from one RDBMS to another. The main benefit is: application developed on one RDBMS will also work on other RDBMS. The benefit will also be for IBM products. IBM now could easily write application that would work on DB2 and Oracle, isn't it?

Regards,
IgorM