I agree wholeheartedly, the reason being (to share my own experiences), that some months ago I sent some feedback on an (unrelated) article in Oracle magazine because I thought much of it was incorrect.
I got a reply from the author of the article basically agreeing with my points. Of course, *that* reply came offline, not in the magazine! Cheers Connor --- Jonathan Lewis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I think it was only a few weeks ago that > I posted a list of errors in an article about > statspack that Oracle Magazine published > in January. > > You may be interested to see that another reader > sent a letter to the editor about the same article, > which has been published, with a response, in > the March issue. > > <<quote>> > > I found an error in "Advanced Tuning with > Statspack" in your > January/February 2003 issue. Rich Niemiec writes > that in > the event of a wait on a segment header to > increase the > Freelist groups. Freelist groups only apply to > Oracle9i RAC > systems, and have nothing to do buffer busy > waits on > non-RAC systems. > > <<end quote>> > > << my comment>> > > It is, of course, unfortunate that this 'correction' > is actually > wrong. Although the manuals have persistently > stated, until > very recently, that freelist groups were relevant > only to OPS, > they have been effective in single instance Oracle > for a long > time - possibly as far back as 7.2.3 > > <<end of my comment>> > > <<Rich Niemiec's reply>> > > Freelist groups do, in fact, have some benefits > apart from > Oracle9i RAC. MetaLink says that Freelist groups > can > have a positive impact in an exclusive > environment > (non-RAC) by helping reduce contention on the > segment > header. However, I should point out that segment > header > block contention can be addressed without > multiple Freelist > groups, for example, by increasing the > pctfree/pctused gap > or by partitioning the segment. > > <<end of reply>> > > > <<My comments>> > > Surely the point of a 'readers comments' section is > to get feedback from the readers, add value to the > article by including readers' experiences or extra > observations, allow expression of readers' attitudes > and feelings (without an aggressive editorial > response), > and, if an actual error does get noted, allow a > correction > to be published. > > > So why publish this erroneous correction ? It did > not > add value to the article, it didn't even expose the > need > for clarification of a point. It merely elicited a > repetition > of some material that had already been stated in the > article (which originally said: "... If this is the > case, increase > the freelist groups or increase the pctused to > pctfree gap"...) > plus the claim that the author had to be right > because the > comment was taken from Metalink. > > > It would, quite arguably, have been valid to reply > with > something like: "Your comments do, indeed reflect > a well-known, and often documented, misconception > about freelist groups. However, the behaviour > changed in > Oracle 7.X.X, and single-instance Oracle will take > advantage of multiple free list groups. Be careful, > however, that you set FREELISTS and FREELIST > GROUPS to relatively co-prime numbers, or you > will lose some of the benefits etc....." > > > So what has the dialogue achieved: > > a) It hasn't improved the knowledge of the > readers. > > b) It has told readers that they had better not > write in if they think that there is an error in > one of the articles unless they want to run > the risk of looking stupid in public. > > c) It has given Rich Niemiec the chance to > say "I'm right, you're wrong - yah, boo, sucks". > > > I'm not impressed.. > > > > Regards > > Jonathan Lewis > http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk > > Coming soon one-day tutorials: > Cost Based Optimisation > Trouble-shooting and Tuning > Indexing Strategies > (see http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/tutorial.html ) > > ____UK_______March 19th > ____UK_______April 8th > ____UK_______April 22nd > > ____USA_(FL)_May 2nd > > > Next Seminar dates: > (see http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/seminar.html ) > > ____USA_(CA, TX)_August > > > The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ > http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html > > > > > -- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: > http://www.orafaq.net > -- > Author: Jonathan Lewis > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 > http://www.fatcity.com > San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web > hosting services > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an > E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of > 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB > ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed > from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information > (like subscribing). > ===== Connor McDonald web: http://www.oracledba.co.uk web: http://www.oaktable.net email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "GIVE a man a fish and he will eat for a day. But TEACH him how to fish, and...he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: =?iso-8859-1?q?Connor=20McDonald?= INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
