RE: Books to suggest

  • From: ryan_gaffuri@xxxxxxxxxxx
  • To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:14:05 +0000

Thalis,
You asked a simple question on what is a good book to get started and you got 
overwhelmed with suggestions from people saying you need to learn this and 
learn that. Those suggestions are overkill. Takes time to pick all that up. It 
sounds like to me that you got thrown into a position and need to get stuff 
done. 
You really don't need to go buy alot of books to do this. Anything with 
'internals' in it should be totally avoided for a while. Not important at 
first.  
Here is the link to the 9.2 documentation. I dont have the 10g link handy, but 
you don't need it to learn the basics.
http://www.oracle.com/pls/db92/db92.homepage
The most important parts here are:
SQL Reference: Has lots of examples. Everyone has syntax problems when they 
learn something new. You will use this alot. This is better than any SQL syntax 
book on the market. 
Concepts Document: 
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96524/toc.htm
Skim this. Look at the table of contents and get the big picture. Ignore the 
details. You won't retain it anyway. This will give you a good idea of what is 
going on. Its really too much information to focus on the details at first 
anyway. Don't worry about it. Just look at the big picture. 
After that read the application developers fundamentals. Skim it. Totally skip 
the stuff on java and xml unless you are using it. Too much information. 
Read Chapters
2-5, 7-9,10-12,15
Skip the rest. 
I also recommend doing this for about 10 minutes a day.
select view_name
from dba_views
Start by looking for the 'table' views such as
select view_name
from dba_views
where view_name like '%TAB%'
and do describes and selects on them. Then go here and get an idea of what they 
mean. Don't memorize. Just play around. When you get curious do a google search 
for more info on something and ask questions here. This is really the best 
exercise I have found to learn about how the database works. Those views are 
the 'data dictionary' of the system. 
Use this documentation to learn them. Don't be overwhelmed. Just play around. 
Do that for 6 months 5 days a week for 10 minutes a day. You will be surprised 
what you know when you are done. 
http://www.oracle.com/pls/db92/db92.catalog_views?remark=homepage
Don't go spending money on books. No need. No offense to any of the authors. I 
have read most of the books written by the people on this list and liked them. 
> Thalis Kalfigopoulos 
> IT Department 
> Alumil S.A. 
> E-mail: t.kalfigopoulos@xxxxxxxxxx 
> 
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