COMPATIBLE lets you use a new release, while at the same time guaranteeing backward
compatibility with an earlier release. This ability is helpful in case it becomes necessary to
revert to the earlier release.
This parameter specifies the release with which the Oracle server must maintain
compatibility. It allows you to take advantage of the maintenance improvements of a new
release immediately in your production systems without testing the new functionality in
your environment. Some features of the current release may be restricted.
When using the standby database feature, this parameter must have the same value on the
primary and standby databases, and the value must be  7 . 3 . 0 . 0 . 0  or higher. The default value
is the earliest release with which compatibility can be guaranteed.
The value of COMPATIBLE must be set to  8 . 1  or higher in order to use stored columns of
UROWID type. You can use ROWID pseudocolumns for index-organized tables regardless of
the parameter setting.
See Also: Oracle8i Migration for more information on setting this parameter.