Re: Oracle book recommendations requested

On Apr 5, 12:46 am, "Tim B" <nos..._at_someisp.ca> wrote:
> I have some experience with SQL and some exposure to PL/SQL, and would like
> to advance my knowledge in both. Ideal would be a book that covers both
> thoroughly at the intermediate to advanced level, with best practices and
> examples of solutions to realistic problems. I may be asking too much to
> find this in one book, so recommendations for separate SQL or PL/SQL books
> would be appreciated too.
>
> Thanks,
> Tim B

Book: Expert One-On-One Oracle by Thomas Kyte -- who is to Oracle what Petzold was to Win32 programming in C (except Kyte is a better writer). Some people complain that the book only covers v7.3 through v8.1.7. Kyte has other books, one of which is, Expert Oracle Database Architecture which does cover v9 and v10.

Even though the Oracle docs aren't as accessible as they could be, when I'm able find what I'm looking for, they're very useful. They're also online (accessible from anywhere). You can download and install them locally if you prefer. Visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/database10gR2.html for the download file.

http://tahiti.oracle.com/ has links to most of the docs for most versions of Oracle.

Once you make a selection from tahiti.oracle.com (assuming v10, http://www.oracle.com/pls/db102/homepage?remark=tahiti)

I'd read the following,

• Installation Guide (for applicable platform).
• Concepts
• 2 Day DBA
• Administrator's Guide
• SQL Reference
• Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals
• PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference

Be warned, Oracle is a large product. At times, the Oracle docs lack continuity. I recommend starting a Word doc, take concise notes (including the URL) so you can go back to the details when you need them. Like most software companies, Oracle began a re-package/re-name campaign which added a lot of unnecessary overhead. One tiny example; Oracle Web Server (OWS) became Oracle Application Server (OAS), then in v9 became the Internet Application Server (iAS), and now under v10 I believe it's back to Oracle Application Server (OAS), but I may be wrong.

For working with the app server, check out, "Oracle Application Server documentation 10g (Release 10.1.3) at tahiti.oracle.com

Once Oracle is installed, you might want to have a look at the following,

ORACLE_HOME\oc4j\Readme.txt
ORACLE_HOME\oc4j\j2ee\home\default-web-app\standaloneguide.pdf

• 2 Day + Performance Tuning Guide.
• Bookmark Morgan's library (http://www.psoug.org/library.html), and start looking through the topics.

Search usenet with a date constraint, this question has been answered many times before.

Keep in mind that Oracle is a LARGE product. Even if you'd give Varuzhan Akobian a run for his money (U.S. Grandmaster of chess who played several top-level opponents *simultaneously*, and defeated all of them), you'll probably not master Oracle in a month.

All the best,
Lawrence Bishop Received on Thu Apr 05 2007 - 20:37:03 CDT