Re: Good Books

"...and very interesting."

The Date book should be required reading in computer science 101, but "very
interesting" implies that your only other hobby is watching grass grow.

Rick

Jeff Davis
<jdavis-pgsql(at)empires(dot)o To: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe(at)g2switchworks(dot)com>
rg> cc: postgresql(at)bryden(dot)co(dot)za, PgSQL General List <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent by: Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Good Books
pgsql-general-owner(at)pos
tgresql.org


03/24/2005 09:57 AM

If you are looking for a database theory book, I highly recommend "An
Introduction to Database Systems" by C.J. Date. It's very theoretical,
but it's precisely worded and very interesting.

Regards,
Jeff Davis

On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 06:54 -0600, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 06:37, postgresql(at)bryden(dot)co(dot)za wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I am new to PostgreSQL and find that the standard documentation is very
> > thin. I would like to buy a more comprehensive book. All the available
> > books seem very out of date!!! Firstly, does it matter if I buy a book
> > that was published in Feb 2003? Will such a book be hopelessly out of
> > date?
> >
> > Does anyone know of any books that will be releasing imminently?
>
> The first books to pick up and become familiar with are the ones on
> database theory, not specifically postgresql. While a lot of other
> databases come with documentation that explains a lot of relational
> theory, PostgreSQL comes with documentation that pretty much assumes you
> already understand database basics and are looking for how to do some
> particular thing in postgresql. So it's not that it's thin in terms of
> covering PostgreSQL, but thin in terms that it's focus is not general
> database theory, but postgresql specifics.
>
> A lot of the books written about PostgreSQL have more information about
> theory, but honestly, a good generic database oriented book is usually
> more helpful at first for most folks.
>
> If you're already familiar with basic db theory, then look for some of
> the pgsql books that have been placed online by their publishers.
>
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