Hidden parameters are like a badge of honor in Oracle circles. Knowing more of them make you more knowledgeable, more likable, and have more hair. Of course, the ladies just love a man that know their hidden params.

My problem with it is that it’s dumb to have them, and they cause problems like this:

http://blogs.oracle.com/theshortenspot/2009/03/change_to_hidden_oracle_parame.html

The major issue here is that by having these hidden parameters, you effectively have turned every instance to a beta version, and worse, you reward the risk taker DBA by allowing them to do things that they really shouldn’t be doing. It’s just an unneeded hassle that has very little benefit in my mind.

Just a quick note to highly recommend this post. It’s principally about Order Event Management, but really does a nice job walking you through the 11i Workflow Editor.

And the reboot is complete. I believe I’ve been hassled enough this time to keep up with this blog. We’ll focus mostly on Oracle here, with a sprinkling of general IT stuff. One of the things I’m hoping to do is bring guest writer in from time to time to bring a slightly different prospective. One word of caution: this will not be an Oracle evangelical blog – I’ll call ‘em like I see ‘em, so look for honest commentary here, not subjective analysis.