How DBA stuff should a Developer learn?

Posted this on .misc by accident. There are alot more DBA's here... so decided to try here...

I have been a developer for about 18 months now and Ive started delving into the DBA side of Oracle. I have read the concepts manual and am now reading the manual on performance tuning. Ill have to read both of those atleast twice to really pick up all the information. Im slowly reading Tom Kyte's book as well. Its slow going since most of it is new information.

Ive noticed that many "senior" developers do not bother to learn this side of it. What Im learning now is really opening my eyes to alot of things that I just took for granted. I open a cursor, ok it does what I want. Its pretty useful to know what is going on and how its being processed.

I dont think I want to become a DBA. Ill probably head down the data modelling/business rules route in time, however, I think that in order to be an elite professional in Oracle I should learn more about the database side.

Howard Rogers recommended Practical 8i. Does anyone have any other recommendations on specifics of what I should learn?

Also, Im leaning towards getting a Masters in Software Engineering at George Mason... how useful is a Masters in this business? I dont have a CS degree and I have found that that limits my options.

Thanks,

Ryan Gaffuri Received on Mon Mar 04 2002 - 15:54:33 CST