A lot of times people will ask the Toad Yahoo discussion group or live at Toad Tips & Tricks events whether Toad can do something. Specifically, the question might be more like can Toad version X support this very cool new Oracle feature I’d like to leverage.

 

For example, a user might ask does Toad 8.0 offer a screen for Oracle AWR. If you look back at my earlier Toad World blog about Toad versus Oracle versions, you’ll often find your exact answer spelled out specifically – i.e. the Toad version new feature list might say exactly what you’re looking for. So in the case of this particular question, we clearly see that Toad 9.0 adds ADDM and AWR support.

 

But what if what you’re looking for is not spelled out so nicely? Again, this chart can generally answer any such question – with a little effort and thought on your part. Let’s assume that Toad 9.0 did not list those two specific items and yet the question remains.

 

If we look at just the earliest Oracle version that offers AWR (10.2.0.1), then the first version of Toad after that was Toad 8.6. But you cannot safely assume that a Toad version supports every new Oracle feature the very first Toad release after that Oracle version releases. The better route is to look for the first Toad release after the current terminal release for that Oracle version (i.e. 10.2.0.4 – which is what Oracle tech support recommends and supports), and then choose the Toad version that came out just after that. So in this case, Toad 9.6 would be the safe answer.

 

In fact, here’s a summarization of that complex chart to make life easy:

The point is that software versions like Toad 8.0 were written years before the newer database versions releases. If you like using newer Oracle features – then that’s reason enough all by itself to remain current on your Toad maintenance. Because all the Toad updates and upgrades are free when you’re on maintenance.