Oracle lightweight client

I needed an Oracle client to do some quick tests on a database server (see the next post), something like SQL Plus. But it felt too heavy for me to install the official client. So I went out looking for an alternative, something that’s standalone, very light to install and use. Of course it should be free.

http://www.sqlpal.com/

SQLPal is a perfect match – it’s free (for use), it’s standalone, just unzip and use (no install), works just like SQLPlus. In addition it has a schema browser to dig into the database easily, supports command history, and happens to be implemented in Java. The Java part has no added advantage though, it wouldn’t make a difference if it were in C++ or Python.

EDIT: I just realized the last update to the program was in 2004, evident from the website as well as the files extracted from the zip. Is it bad that there are no updates? Or it’s just a good program that needs no updates?

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