Books for PostgreSQL?

G Lam wrote:

Hi, I have some experience in MS Access 97 and 2000 and did write some
application with them. Now, I want to learn PostgreSQL. I installed it on
a RH8.0 server. Which books would you guys recommand?
Thank you.
Gary

Well Gary, I'm a newbie too and I found that 'PostgreSQL' by Douglas &
Douglas (ISBN: 0735712573) offers a very good introduction. I haven't
gotten a lot further than that for the moment, but the rest of the book
looks very prommising too. You should check the customer-reviews on Amazon
or something. You'll probably find more booktitles and info there...

Greetz
--
Tom Van den Brandt
I try...

You could try postgres documentation at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/

or there is an online book titled 'PostgreSQL: Introduction and Concepts'
at http://candle.pha.pa.us/main/writings/computer.html

G Lam wrote:

On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 22:13, G Lam wrote:

Hi, I have some experience in MS Access 97 and 2000 and did write some
application with them. Now, I want to learn PostgreSQL. I installed it on a
RH8.0 server. Which books would you guys recommand?

As important as the book: what version are you using? That which
comes with RH8.0? It is recommended that you upgrade to v7.3.4.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA

4 degrees from Vladimir Putin

Hi, I have some experience in MS Access 97 and 2000 and did write some
application with them. Now, I want to learn PostgreSQL. I installed it on a
RH8.0 server. Which books would you guys recommand?

Well there are official documentation of course
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/ which are very good. But since you asked
for books, there are some printed books available online:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/awbook.html and
http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook/book1.htm

Kaarel

Together with the official documentation I still use
PostgreSQL - Introduction and Concepts from Bruce Momjian. He should write a
much more comprehensive (tuning, large objects vs bytea) and updated (to 7.4)
2nd edition, but it is still very good and really worth the money.
Regards
Christoph
Am Donnerstag, 21. August 2003 05:13 schrieb G Lam:

I'll second the usefulness of Bruce's book. I still refer to it
years after buying it.

I'd highly recommend either of the two books out by Sams with by Hans and
Ewald. Both very good good books. One is just purely Postgresql, the
other is a PHP/Postgresql book.

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Christoph Becker wrote:

Hi, I have some experience in MS Access 97 and 2000 and did write some
application with them. Now, I want to learn PostgreSQL. I installed it
on a
RH8.0 server. Which books would you guys recommand?

Well, I'm a little biased because I work at the author's shop :), but I
use Practical PostgreSQL from O'Reilly (link below also has the book
online). And I also use Bruce Momjian's PostgreSQL Introduction and
Concepts book a lot -- it's been commuting with me to work for the past
few weeks.

I'm always on the lookout for more PostgreSQL books so I'll be
following this thread with interest.

--
Best,
Al Hulaton | Sr. Account Engineer | Command Prompt, Inc.
503.222.2783 | ahulaton@commandprompt.com
Home of Mammoth PostgreSQL and 'Practical PostgreSQL'
Managed PostgreSQL, Linux services and consulting
Read and Search O'Reilly's 'Practical PostgreSQL' at
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G Lam wrote:

Hi, I have some experience in MS Access 97 and 2000 and did write some
application with them. Now, I want to learn PostgreSQL. I installed it on a
RH8.0 server. Which books would you guys recommand?
Thank you.
Gary

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings

'PostgreSQL Essential Reference' by Barry Stinson is a useful book to
have at your desk, it's the only one I use. As the name suggests, it's a
reference and not a database/SQL how-to for total database newbies. OTOH
I *can't* recommend the O'Reilly book because the index is very poor,
making it useless as reference material.

Ron

Not to take anything away from the books on the topic, but my favorite
source is the docs that got installed with postgres
(/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html).

The index isn't great, but easily overcome:
grep -i "search phrase" /usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/* | less

Try to do that with a book. :-)

When I can't find the answer there, I search the mailing list archives
and/or google.

-heath

The only problem with 'Practical PostgreSQL' is that it is rather out of
date.

It covers PostgreSQL up to 7.1. There have been a lot of advances since then
some that really need covering. (Functions returning record sets immediately
springs to mind.)

On the whole it is a good book, apart from the chapter of advertising. (The
one on LXP, if its not included out of the box then why put it in the book?
A chapter is way to much IMHO...)

Wait until the 2nd edition that should cover 7.3 or 7.4.

-Ben.

El Jue 28 Ago 2003 10:26, Benjamin Jury escribió:

The only problem with 'Practical PostgreSQL' is that it is rather out of
date.

Not exactly. Yesterday a friend told me that a new edition of the book was
coming out this month, which should cover up to 7.3, or even 7.4 features.

Any way, I was only told, and didn't have time to check it out yet.

--
Porqué usar una base de datos relacional cualquiera,
si podés usar PostgreSQL?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Martín Marqués | mmarques@unl.edu.ar
Programador, Administrador, DBA | Centro de Telematica
Universidad Nacional
del Litoral
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Not to take anything away from the books on the topic, but my favorite
source is the docs that got installed with postgres
(/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html).

The index isn't great, but easily overcome:
grep -i "search phrase" /usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/* | less

Try to do that with a book. :-)

When I can't find the answer there, I search the mailing list archives
and/or google.

I'm sorry, but I'm also a DB newbie, and I find the online documentation
ok/good, and very good if you are a seasoned user who just needs
reference. It esp sucks regarding the configuration file. Yes it
explains each line item, but not how it affects the database, when do
you want a large value here, when do you want a small value, etc. This
fact is born out by the number of times people have to respond with "did
you tweak xxxx in the config file?" Maybe the books aren't any better....

--
--Chris

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Heath Tanner wrote:

Not to take anything away from the books on the topic, but my favorite
source is the docs that got installed with postgres
(/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html).

The index isn't great, but easily overcome:
grep -i "search phrase" /usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/* | less

Try to do that with a book. :-)

That brings ujp a good point, indexes in many technical bools are pathetic.

On 28 Aug 2003 at 7:55, Chris Webster wrote:

Not to take anything away from the books on the topic, but my favorite
source is the docs that got installed with postgres
(/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html).

The index isn't great, but easily overcome:
grep -i "search phrase" /usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/* | less

Try to do that with a book. :-)

When I can't find the answer there, I search the mailing list archives
and/or google.

I'm sorry, but I'm also a DB newbie, and I find the online documentation
ok/good, and very good if you are a seasoned user who just needs
reference. It esp sucks regarding the configuration file. Yes it
explains each line item, but not how it affects the database, when do
you want a large value here, when do you want a small value, etc. This
fact is born out by the number of times people have to respond with "did
you tweak xxxx in the config file?" Maybe the books aren't any better....

http://www.varlena.com/varlena/GeneralBits/Tidbits/annotated_conf_e.html
http://www.varlena.com/varlena/GeneralBits/Tidbits/perf.html

These are actually collections of FAQ put in a nice sugar candy.

HTH

Bye
Shridhar

--
Respect is a rational process -- McCoy, "The Galileo Seven", stardate 2822.3

Benjamin Jury wrote:

The only problem with 'Practical PostgreSQL' is that it is rather out of
date.

True, there have been many new features, however you can't say its
beyond usefullness now. A new person to PostgreSQL can look at it
online, check it out at the library, pick it up new/used... and still
learn the majority of PostgreSQL installation and usage.

one on LXP, if its not included out of the box then why put it in the book?
A chapter is way to much IMHO...)

I heard a rumour that LXP should be open sourced fairly soon.

Wait until the 2nd edition that should cover 7.3 or 7.4.

We all wait in anticipation... ;-)

However, the 1st release is open source and you can read it online anytime.

--
Robby Russell, | Sr. Administrator / Lead Programmer
Command Prompt, Inc. | http://www.commandprompt.com
rrussell@commandprompt.com | Telephone: (503) 222.2783

On Thursday, August 28, 2003, at 08:58 AM, Dennis Gearon wrote:

Heath Tanner wrote:

Not to take anything away from the books on the topic, but my
favorite source is the docs that got installed with postgres
(/usr/local/pgsql/doc/html).

The index isn't great, but easily overcome:
grep -i "search phrase" /usr/local/pgsql/doc/html/* | less

Try to do that with a book. :-)

That brings ujp a good point, indexes in many technical bools are
pathetic.

I wrote a quick'n'dirty search engine (using PostgreSQL, of course)
for exactly that reason.

Jeff

As the co-author of Practical PostgreSQL: Yes Pratical PostgreSQL 2E is
on the way. It will cover 7.4. It WILL NOT BE OUT NEXT MONTH. It will
probably be out in mid-winter.

Sincerely,

Joshua Drake

Martin Marques wrote:

El Jue 28 Ago 2003 10:26, Benjamin Jury escribió:

The only problem with 'Practical PostgreSQL' is that it is rather out of
date.

Not exactly. Yesterday a friend told me that a new edition of the book was
coming out this month, which should cover up to 7.3, or even 7.4 features.

Any way, I was only told, and didn't have time to check it out yet.

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Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
+1-503-222-2783 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com
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