Joshua D. Drake wrote:
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On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:53:25 -0500
Tom Hart <tomhart@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey everybody. I was just informed that our organization has a credit
at amazon.com and asked if I had any books I wanted. I've been
thinking about getting a postgresql book, and from what I've seen and
read Practical PostgreSQL seems to be the standard (as well as
co-authored by Joshua Drake, somebody that has helped me many times
on this very list) but the fact that it's based on 7.x worries me. I
started using postgresql with 8.x on windows and I'm wondering if
this book and it's teachings will help me or if I should look at
something targeted at 8.x or windows. What do you guys think?
Pratical PostgreSQL is still a good reference but you can use the free
web version as a reference. It lacks a lot of information that
is very useful (ex, the books has zero idea of pg_stat_*). The Korry
Douglas book is still reasonably relevant (as it covers 8) and is also
a good book.
I find that the best way to get what you need, is to read the fine
manual from postgresql. Yes, its massive, unwieldy and in a lot of
ways counter-intuitive (to a newbie) but if you have the terminology
down you aren't going to find a more comprehensive text.
Plus, when you find things that don't quite make sense you can submit
a doc patch to make the docs that much better.
Sincerely,
Joshua D. Drake
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I've checked out the docs online, and they've helped me a great deal.
I've also read excerpts from the free online version of practical. I'll
stick with my current strategy of online docs/mailing list for now.
BTW, thanks for not completely plugging your book. Have you guys
considered authoring another on 8.x?
--
Tom Hart
IT Specialist
Cooperative Federal
723 Westcott St.
Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 471-1116 ext. 202
(315) 476-0567 (fax)
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