True about the lack of framework putting the pieces together and providing an overview. Also IMHO another difficulty the manual poses is that the reader doesn't have a way to confirm his level of understanding after reading a chapter. Letting aside the concepts for which creating a scenario/test-case are downright complex, hard to reproduce or dependent on a per-installation basis, the learning experience could greatly benefit from a pg-tailored Q&A section at the end of each chapter. Perhaps even a downloadable test database to play with? And not wanting to just be lighting fires here, I'd be happy to volunteer. Now I'd understand the Pg manual writers being reluctant about shifting from manual to DB-book, but I'm guessing, the manual being as well written as it is, that many of us are already using it as a learning book anyway. best regards, Thalis K. On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 3:41 PM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 02:34:37PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote: >> On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 02:53:14PM -0300, Thalis Kalfigkopoulos wrote: >> > I assume the EntrerpriseDB certification seminars are an obvious quick >> > answer: http://www.enterprisedb.com/products-services-training/training/dba-training >> > >> > But TBH, I find the PostgreSQL manual to be an excelent guide if you >> > don't mind reading. It is extremely well written (kudos to whoever is >> > on the writing team), definitely written by experts, it delves >> > reasonably enough into detail where >> > needed and most of all: it serves not only as a Pg manual, but as a DB >> > theory/good practice manual as well. I realize that 2.8Kpages is not >> > easy to digest, but the first 30 Chapters seem to cover more than >> > enough to just get you started (though not Slony/pgpool). >> >> I think the big thing the training manual is missing is giving >> inexperienced users a framework to understand all the pieces. Training >> does help in that area, and I am unclear how we could improve the manual >> to address that. > > As a disclaimer, I should add that I do training for EnterpriseDB. I > think the communication of a mental framework in understanding Postgres > is one of the most valuable things I can give students. I think my > presentations have a similar focus: > > http://momjian.us/main/presentations/ > > -- > Bruce Momjian <bruce@xxxxxxxxxx> http://momjian.us > EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com > > + It's impossible for everything to be true. + -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
