Re: RE: Little competition

From: Daniel Hanks <hanksdc_at_about-inc.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:19:28 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.005D990C.20031211101928@fatcity.com>

On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 ryan_oracle_at_cox.net wrote:

> oracle literature is really lacking in entry level docs anyway. The concepts document is way too large to be digestable by someone new to the topic.
>
> What we really need is:
>
> simple SQL book for newbies

O'Reilly's Mastering Oracle SQL? (It starts out from the basics, and moves at a rapid pace, but it's very well done, IMO. 312 pages)

> simple PL/SQL book for newbies

O'Reilly's Learning Oracle PL/SQL? (Not quite as imposing as Oracle PL/SQL Programming, and just a bit over 400 pages.)

> Architecture book

O'Reilly's Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i & Oracle8? (381 pages)

> automatic features

Not sure...might be covered a bit in the previous title.

I guess altogether that's pushing 1000 pages, but between those three books, there's probably a lot of good information. (I'm a major O'Reilly fan, if you couldn't tell...). Once they've digested these, Milsap & Holt would be next in the list of course ;-).

>
> Beginning Oracle Programming by Kyte, et all took a stab at this but they included WAY too much information and some sections are unreadable(the pl/sql chapters are terrible).
>
> Any newbie book should be 400 pages maximum. People get intimidated by large books when they are new.

For most of these 'simple' databases though, do people really need to get into PL/SQL? Or would SQL itself be enough for most of these tasks? If so you could drop the PL/SQL book off the list and you're down 400 pages.

Dan
Daniel Hanks - Systems/Database Administrator About Inc., Web Services Division
-- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Daniel Hanks INET: hanksdc_at_about-inc.com

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------

To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). Received on Thu Dec 11 2003 - 12:19:28 CST