Thread: Postgresql Books: Which one ?
Hello All,
I hope that you are well. I noticed that Chapters (in Canada atleast) has these
books for sale, does anybody have any recommendations which one to get ?
1) PostgreSQL by Korry Douglas (SAMS)
http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672327562
2) beginning Databases With Postgresql: From Novice To Professional, Second
Edition: From Novice To Professional (APress)
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=424
Thanks alot for your advice.
Cheers,
Aly.
--
Aly S.P Dharshi
aly.dharshi@telus.net
"A good speech is like a good dress
that's short enough to be interesting
and long enough to cover the subject"
From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Aly Dharshi > does anybody have any recommendations which one to get ? > 1) PostgreSQL by Korry Douglas (SAMS) http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672327562 i like the first edition of Douglas very much, i presume that this second edition will keep up the standard. > 2) beginning Databases With Postgresql: From Novice To Professional, Second >Edition: From Novice To Professional (APress) > http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=424 i just finished reading a review copy of this (review to follow somewhere or other shortly), and on the whole, it's not bad. it is trying to cover a great deal of material and so seems a little rushed at times, but it's a decent book with lots of stuff in it. both books cover PostgreSQL 8.0 richard
On Mon, Aug 15, 2005 at 11:19:29AM -0400, WELTY, RICHARD wrote: > From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org > [mailto:pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Aly Dharshi > > > does anybody have any recommendations which one to get ? > > > 1) PostgreSQL by Korry Douglas (SAMS) > > http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672327562 > > i like the first edition of Douglas very much, i presume that this > second edition will keep up the standard. It does :) > > 2) beginning Databases With Postgresql: From Novice To > > Professional, Second > >Edition: From Novice To Professional (APress) > >http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=424 > > i just finished reading a review copy of this (review to follow > somewhere or other shortly), and on the whole, it's not bad. it is > trying to cover a great deal of material and so seems a little > rushed at times, but it's a decent book with lots of stuff in it. I haven't read this one, so I don't know. HTH :) Cheers, D -- David Fetter david@fetter.org http://fetter.org/ phone: +1 510 893 6100 mobile: +1 415 235 3778 Remember to vote!
Hello Richard,
I hope that you are well. Having read both books would your recommendation be
to go with Korry Douglas' book ?
Cheers,
Aly.
WELTY, RICHARD wrote:
> From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org
> [mailto:pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org]On Behalf Of Aly Dharshi
>
>
>>does anybody have any recommendations which one to get ?
>
>
>> 1) PostgreSQL by Korry Douglas (SAMS) http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672327562
>
>
> i like the first edition of Douglas very much, i presume that this second edition
> will keep up the standard.
>
>
>> 2) beginning Databases With Postgresql: From Novice To Professional, Second
>>Edition: From Novice To Professional (APress)
>> http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=424
>
>
> i just finished reading a review copy of this (review to follow somewhere or other
> shortly), and on the whole, it's not bad. it is trying to cover a great deal of
> material and so seems a little rushed at times, but it's a decent book with lots of
> stuff in it.
>
> both books cover PostgreSQL 8.0
>
> richard
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
> choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
> match
--
Aly S.P Dharshi
aly.dharshi@telus.net
"A good speech is like a good dress
that's short enough to be interesting
and long enough to cover the subject"
> I hope that you are well. Having read both books would your > recommendation be to go with Korry Douglas' book ? Two copies of the Douglas^2 book came in today at the office... I took a peruse of the chapter that everyone would expect I'd look at first, and was quite impressed. I haven't read the other book; I would have no difficulty commending the Douglas^2 book as being a useful reference. -- (reverse (concatenate 'string "moc.liamg" "@" "enworbbc")) http://cbbrowne.com/info/ If we were meant to fly, we wouldn't keep losing our luggage.
Aly Dharshi [mailto:aly.dharshi@telus.net] wrote: > Having read both books would your recommendation be > to go with Korry Douglas' book ? a qualified "probably". one of the things i'm going to do when i actually write the review is make a quick pass over douglas for a compare and contrast; i think that there's probably a bit of concensus on this list among those who have read douglas that it sets a pretty high standard. i also like _Essential PostgreSQL_ a lot, and still use it quite a bit, but it's getting somewhat long in the tooth. an 8.0 update of that one would be rather nice to have. it's very much a reference rather than a tutorial, though. richard
Hello All,
I hope that you are well. Based on the consensus on the list and the good
recommendations from y'all. I will be ordering Douglas' book. I think that I
would benefit greatly from it. Thanks to all that responded to this thread.
Cheers,
Aly.
WELTY, RICHARD wrote:
> Aly Dharshi [mailto:aly.dharshi@telus.net] wrote:
>
>>Having read both books would your recommendation be
>>to go with Korry Douglas' book ?
>
>
> a qualified "probably". one of the things i'm going to do when
> i actually write the review is make a quick pass over douglas
> for a compare and contrast; i think that there's probably a
> bit of concensus on this list among those who have read douglas
> that it sets a pretty high standard.
>
> i also like _Essential PostgreSQL_ a lot, and still use it quite
> a bit, but it's getting somewhat long in the tooth. an 8.0 update
> of that one would be rather nice to have. it's very much a reference
> rather than a tutorial, though.
>
> richard
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
--
Aly S.P Dharshi
aly.dharshi@telus.net
"A good speech is like a good dress
that's short enough to be interesting
and long enough to cover the subject"
Thought I would add some comments to this thread. I recently bought the K. Douglas & S. Douglas (2006) "PostgreSQL: The comprehensive guide to building, programming, and administering PostgreSQL databases", 2nd ed (1006 pages). At $50, it is a bit pricey, but that is the case with all technical books (probably cheaper at Amazon than where I got it). This edition covers PostgreSQL up to version 8.0 and provides nice history, discussion of the advantages of open-source programs, and a good description of the features of PostgreSQL. Nice (and well deserved) comments about the development team.
My major criterion in deciding whether the book is worthwhile is whether it adds anything to the excellent documentation provided with PostgreSQL - after all, what other open-source program has a 1400 page manual? The book is definitely worth having. It provides nice explanations and walk-throughs for various tasks that go beyond the basic PostgreSQL documentation.
The book is organized as a tutorial around a database for a video store. This is a good way to teach the program and present examples. However, there is an inherent shortcoming in this approach if you want to use this book as a reference. If you want to look up a specific subject (e.g., SQL implementation, psql interface), you may have to look in several different places to get the information you want. This is because the explanations are presented as the specific tasks (installation, set up, etc.) are described. For a desktop reference, the information would be organized by topic rather than by task. To minimize the inconvenience, the book has a very good index.
So, bottom line, this is an extensive, tutorial-oriented text with good examples and explanations that go beyond the basic PostgreSQL documentation. It is well written, clear, and the authors clearly have a strong grasp of the technical aspects of PostgreSQL. Definitely worth having!
Michael Schmidt