There are a couple of reasons you might prefer to use Oracle 6i Forms over the newer Oracle 9iDV.
For one thing, the current book and test were written before the newer softare was available.
For another, the old software is only half the size in Megabytes, so if you have a limited size on
your hard disk, you simply may HAVE to use it.

Steps to installing Oracle Forms6i to connect to a 9i database:

First, you will need to create a new Oracle home. To do this, run universal installer 
from the START/PROGRAMS/ORACLE INSTALLATION PRODUCTS menu.

With the 6i CD in the CD-ROM (or from your download directory), act as though 
you wish to install from the setup.exe as the source of the "PATH OF THE PRODUCTS YOU WISH TO INSTALL."
It is expecting a file called products.jar. Therefore, it will definitely crash. But don't 
run it just yet. For the DESTINATION, create a new Home name "ORAHOME6i" and a path "C:\ORACLE\ORA6i".

Now run it. It will crash. That is fine. Before it crashes, it will create the folder and
setup the registry for the rest of the install.

Now, run the SETUP.EXE from the CDROM or your download. It will now allow you to select the ORA6i as a 
new home and it will run. I have seen it reject this home once, just try it again. It will go 
on the second try.

Ok, the 6i software is setup, but you are not done just yet. There are two problems left to
solve. The first is that the Oracle Forms Software in the ORAHOME6i needs to use the TNS in the 
first home to connect to the database there. We do this through the registry. Run REGEDIT from 
START/RUN. BE CAREFUL with this software, changing the registry can mess up the entire operating 
system. Fortunately, we just need to make one simple addition. Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE/HOME1 open that folder. Right click on the panel 
to the right, ADD STRING Value name: "TNS_ADMIN" Value data: "c:\oracle\ora90\network\admin\"
(DO NOT INCLUDE THE QUOTATION MARKS!)

Ok, the next problem is that there is an environmental variable that points to the 
newer of the two homes. The problem with that is that when you want to run SQLPLUS from the 
command line, you will get an old version of the software and it will always popout in a seperate
window. It may not even connect. Anyway, its an easy fix. 
Goto START/PROGRAMS/Oracle for windowsNT - ORAHOME6i/ORACLE HOME SELECTOR
and choose the ORAHOME90 as the current home.

Cool, now you can connect the 6i Forms to the database in the OraHome90 Home. You are ready to study!

Edward
;-)