from oracle documentation:
Table Locks (TM)
A transaction acquires a table lock when a table is modified in the following DML statements: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, SELECT with the FOR UPDATE clause, and LOCK TABLE. These DML operations require table locks for two purposes: to reserve DML access to the table on behalf of a transaction and to prevent DDL operations that would conflict with the transaction. Any table lock prevents the acquisition of an exclusive DDL lock on the same table and thereby prevents DDL operations that require such locks. For example, a table cannot be altered or dropped if an uncommitted transaction holds a table lock for it. (For more information about exclusive DDL locks, see "Exclusive DDL Locks".)
Exclusive DDL Locks
Most DDL operations (except for those listed in the next section, "Share DDL Locks"
require exclusive DDL locks for a resource to prevent destructive interference with other DDL operations that might modify or reference the same schema object. For example, a DROP TABLE operation is not allowed to drop a table while an ALTER TABLE operation is adding a column to it, and vice versa.
During the acquisition of an exclusive DDL lock, if another DDL lock is already held on the schema object by another operation, the acquisition waits until the older DDL lock is released and then proceeds.
DDL operations also acquire DML locks (data locks) on the schema object to be modified.
Share DDL Locks
Some DDL operations require share DDL locks for a resource to prevent destructive interference with conflicting DDL operations, but allow data concurrency for similar DDL operations. For example, when a CREATE PROCEDURE statement is executed, the containing transaction acquires share DDL locks for all referenced tables. Other transactions can concurrently create procedures that reference the same tables and therefore acquire concurrent share DDL locks on the same tables, but no transaction can acquire an exclusive DDL lock on any referenced table. No transaction can alter or drop a referenced table. As a result, a transaction that holds a share DDL lock is guaranteed that the definition of the referenced schema object will remain constant for the duration of the transaction.
A share DDL lock is acquired on a schema object for DDL statements that include the following commands: AUDIT, NOAUDIT, COMMENT, CREATE [OR REPLACE] VIEW/ PROCEDURE/PACKAGE/PACKAGE BODY/FUNCTION/ TRIGGER, CREATE SYNONYM, and CREATE TABLE (when the CLUSTER parameter is not included).