Oracle Rdb

Rdb/VMS was created by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) in 1984 and was part of the VMS (now OpenVMS) Information Architecture. It was orinally intended to be used for data storage and retreval by high-level languages and/or other DEC products like: DATATRIEVE, RALLY, and TEAMDATA.

In 1994 DEC sold the Rdb division to Oracle where it was rebranded Oracle Rdb. Contrary to popular belief, Oracle is still enhancing and developing this product in 2004. It currently runs on OpenVMS for VAX, OpenVMS for Alpha, Tru64 UNIX, and Windows-NT. Oracle has committed to porting it to OpenVMS for Itanium.

Interactive access to the Oracle Rdb can be by SQL (Structured Query Language), RDO (Relational Database Operator), or both.

High level languages usually access Rdb by:

1. embeddeding RDO statements in your source file then running it through a precompiler

  (example: "file.RBA" is pre-complied into "file.BAS")

2. embeddeding SQL statements in your source file then running it through a precompiler

  (example: "file.SBA" is pre-complied into "file.BAS")

3. placing your SQL statements in a file external to your source code; this separate file is converted to object code by the "SQL Module Language" complier; your source code then references these SQL statements and, after complilation, the two are joined by the OpenVMS linker.

  example: $SQL$MOD file_bas.sqlmod        -> file_bas.obj
           $BASIC   file.bas               -> file.obj
           $LINK    file.obj,file._bas.obj -> file.exe

On OpenVMS systems, Oracle Rdb is the popular upgrade path for applications written using RMS (Record Management System) which is an ISAM technology built directly into OpenVMS.