Well, PL/SQL is certainly proprietary, but that is because we lack an
ANSI standard for stored procedures. I think PL/SQL is a proposed
standard with the ANSI body for SQL-3, but I'm no expert and will not
argue about it. Anyway, PL/SQL is not a 4GL.

There are some obvious reasons why you would not choose to use our
current PL/SQL approach to generate dynamic content in html pages:
- need to interface with external things
- need to support multiple databases
- need to access blobs
- more comfortable with some other language
- not so worried about support issues
- not so worried about manageability and porting issues
- not so worried about using the filesystem

I'm sure there are more reasons. However, there are quite a lot of
reasons, especially for existing Oracle customers, why the PL/SQL
approach is very attractive:

- their existing applications have PL/SQL APIs, so they get easy
integration
- need to do lots of SQL
- need 100% portability between operating systems
- need good scaleability
- need to make use of SMP and MPP hardware architectures
- need to support many concurrent users
- need enhanced security features
- no external files to manage
- full data encapsulation
- need 24x7 worldwide support
- global consulting business
- offices in over 90 countries
- need proven technology

Judging by the amount of attention and business we are doing with
fortune-100 corporations on our WebServer technology, this is
certainly a valid analysis. This is actually the first time I've had a
chance to read usenet for over a month!

The key is really to choose the right tool for a given task, and as
indicated, PL/SQL is suitable for some, but not all.