Thread: books

I have the book, "Postgres Introduction and Concepts" by Bruce Momjian
dated 2001 (version 7.0.2) and O'Reilly's "Pracitcal PostgreSQL" dated
2002 (version 7.1.x).

I already noticed a change in the pg_hba.conf files to include an extra
column from the books to my current version 7.4.2

I am trying to assess the need to keep using these books.  I am assuming
that probably 90% of the books are valid until I get into vacuum and
some administration goodies.

Without reading all the changelogs yet, am I close?
I know I'll have to keep hitting the docs themselves to be sure, but I
would hate to toss these before they get a chance to get really worn out.

Tom Allison wrote:
 > I have the book, "Postgres Introduction and Concepts" by Bruce Momjian
 > dated 2001 (version 7.0.2) and O'Reilly's "Pracitcal PostgreSQL" dated
 > 2002 (version 7.1.x).
 >
 > I already noticed a change in the pg_hba.conf files to include an extra
 > column from the books to my current version 7.4.2

Just my personal opinion ...  I do not have any PostgreSQL
books, and I think the online documentation is excellent.
In fact it is better than most other documentations of open
source projects that I've seen (which is quite a lot).
If someone asked me for a good PostgreSQL book, I wouldn't
hesitate to answer "Use the online docs".  Even if you're
a complete SQL newbie, they get you going pretty quickly,
and they probably contain everything you ever need to know.
I find myself using the reference sections on SQL commands
and data types quite often.

In fact, I guess if you just take the online docs and make
a book from it, it would be perfect.  Except that it would
be outdated a few months later, while the online docs are
always up-to-date.

 > I am trying to assess the need to keep using these books.  I am assuming
 > that probably 90% of the books are valid until I get into vacuum and
 > some administration goodies.
 >
 > Without reading all the changelogs yet, am I close?
 > I know I'll have to keep hitting the docs themselves to be sure, but I
 > would hate to toss these before they get a chance to get really worn out.

A lot of details have changed since 7.0.x and 7.1.x.  And
it is often those details which can cause subtle problems
when you don't expect them.  For example, I have recently
stumbled across the fact that the "serial" datatype does
not imply UNIQUE anymore (it did in PostgreSQL < 7.3).

Just my two Cents, and YMMV.

Regards
   Oliver

--
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.

I suggested holding a "Python Object Oriented Programming Seminar",
but the acronym was unpopular.
        -- Joseph Strout

On Wed, Mar 17, 2004 at 07:14:11 -0500,
  Tom Allison <tallison@tacocat.net> wrote:
> I have the book, "Postgres Introduction and Concepts" by Bruce Momjian
> dated 2001 (version 7.0.2) and O'Reilly's "Pracitcal PostgreSQL" dated
> 2002 (version 7.1.x).
>
> I already noticed a change in the pg_hba.conf files to include an extra
> column from the books to my current version 7.4.2
>
> I am trying to assess the need to keep using these books.  I am assuming
> that probably 90% of the books are valid until I get into vacuum and
> some administration goodies.
>
> Without reading all the changelogs yet, am I close?
> I know I'll have to keep hitting the docs themselves to be sure, but I
> would hate to toss these before they get a chance to get really worn out.

If you are using the book to learn SQL it won't be that far off and having
a paper version can be convenient. For administration, I would suggest reading
the current online docs.

The online docs make a very nice reference book. It may even be worth
printing out as a paper book if you can build postscript files from the
docs. This isn't easy and the PS docs for 7.4 aren't premade and available
for download. As an alternative I have the html version of the docs installed
locally so that I can easily look through them.

Bruno Wolff III wrote:
> If you are using the book to learn SQL it won't be that far off and having
> a paper version can be convenient. For administration, I would suggest reading
> the current online docs.
>
> The online docs make a very nice reference book. It may even be worth
> printing out as a paper book if you can build postscript files from the
> docs. This isn't easy and the PS docs for 7.4 aren't premade and available
> for download. As an alternative I have the html version of the docs installed
> locally so that I can easily look through them.
>

Thanks to you and Glenn I will probably keep my books around for a while
and look into printing the online docs.

But I've been properly warned that:
if something doesn't seem to work right, check the online docs.
Online docs will show more features.
All admin and "under the hood" activity should consult the online docs.

I've been doing oracle databases (user perspective) and can write some
SQL, I just need to be certain I've got the "care and feeding" correct.

I've had to "administer" in the past MySQL, but that's a very different
system. or so it seems.  I just have to muck around for a bit.

for instance...
Oracle as a set of tables to show table_names, column names.. that are
there, but you have to know what they are named.
Does postgresql have this similar feature in databases?

Similarly, how would I find out what user settings are?

I guess I'm trying to bridge the difference between MySQL's process of
INSERTing a user ID into a database table and modifying it for access
versus the postgres method of CREATE USER.  How do I access user status
from the sql line, can I?

Tom Allison <tallison@tacocat.net> writes:
> I guess I'm trying to bridge the difference between MySQL's process of
> INSERTing a user ID into a database table and modifying it for access
> versus the postgres method of CREATE USER.  How do I access user status
> from the sql line, can I?

You can still hack pg_shadow manually if you really want to.  It's a
good way to shoot yourself in the foot, though, or get burnt by
cross-version changes, which is why we encourage using the special
commands instead.

            regards, tom lane