Customer Reviews

MySQL and mSQL

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

When I was considering purchasing this book, there were only three reviews available. One review thought the book worth the reviewer's trouble - the other two consigned it to the trash-can of history. So I closed my eyes, crossed my fingers (of my non-mouse hand) and clicked the Add-to-Shopping-Trolley button.

I'm glad I did. I now have a hard-copy, handy reference to MySQL and mSQL, that covers installation, setup and configuration of the software. It covers programming access to the two database engines, too, with overviews of the Perl::DBI and Python modules. Accessing data with PHP is given a brief look too. The documentation accompanying Perl, Python and PHP are the ultimate references, so I think it unreasonable to expect more than an overview focussing on any more than the the database engine interface.

I needed a small to medium database engine with a CGI interface and/or an SQL interface. MySQL and mSQL both seemed to fit the bill - but which one would be best for MY purposes? I hadn't had the time to visit their respective web-sites and read the on-line documentation. This book, if I guessed O'Reilly's intent correctly, and if my reading between the lines of the few reviews available was correct, would give me both the information I needed to choose between them,and the installation, setup and use coverage I would also need for the chosen engine in a handy reference form - I assume the chosen engine will come with more comprehensive information.

The book is exactly what I expected. It is written for the experienced (intermediate to advanced) system administrator/dba (data base administrator) enabling them to quickly install and set up a medium-sized database engine. The tools provided to administer the database server are also covered sufficiently for the experienced. If you expect to learn SQL, Database administration, database query programming and more, then you will be severely disappointed.

I give the book 4 stars. It may be worth more, but editorial and proof-reading errors (O'Reilly books used to be better) interrupt one's reading. The example code has occasional errors but then I didn't expect it to be gospel but rather an illustration of how-to. I was a little bemused at first by the switching back and forth between the two engines. As I read more, I came to appreciate the approach of treating MySQL and mSQL as one and highlighting the differences between them.

If you are a webmaster, have some programming experience, some dba experience and are at home in the L-Unix environment, then you will find the book useful.

I was very disappointed with this book. So were two coworkers who have looked at it. This book is not up to the traditional O'Reilly quality. (In fact, I'm annoyed enough to say that Que should have published this book...)

Only about 30% of the book is useful material. Most examples and explanations are sketchy -- almost useless. If you already knew SQL, there's very little to learn from this book. If you didn't know SQL, this book does a poor job of teaching it to you.

If the book stuck strictly to mSQL and MySQL, it would have been about ~150 pages of content. The rest (about 300 pages) is a "reference manual" for various (PHP/Perl/Java JDBC/C/Python) languages' support for MySQL/mSQL. Again, if you didn't know the concepts already, you would have a hard time learning useful stuff from this book.

Still, I have to admit to using the book every so often as a handy "at-my-fingertips" reference book. For that, I am glad that I have it. But I don't think it was worth the price I paid.

I disagree with many of the reviews I've read here.

"MySQL & mSQL" was EXACTLY what I hoped and expected it to be: a detailed discussion of what was unique to just those two database products. If you need to learn SQL, normalization, schema design, query optimiziation, etc, go buy one of the dozens of books already out there -- they apply to MySQL as well as Sybase, Oracle, etc.

However, if you're like me and you already know SQL and relational database concepts, then all you really want to know is how MySQL/mSQL implement them and how you go about executing statements, running queries, and extracting results from your programming language of choice.

I needed to know: what datatypes MySQL supports; what RDBMS features it does/does not provide, and how to get at them; how the peculiar MySQL security system operates; and how to access MySQL from Perl and Java. It answered every one of my questions comprehensively and succinctly.

Exactly as it should have.

I have to agree that this is not one of O'Reilly's better titles. I think the second edition if there is one should be carefully reviewed and edited.

In the authors defense I do not think this book was meant to be an intro text to database programming. If that is what you are looking for in a "language" book try "Access Database Design @ Programming" by Steven Roman, Also published by O'Reilly. His Relational Database tutorial is thorough and succinct.

The mixture of mSQL and MySQL in the discussions regarding more DB administration and capabilities is excellent and possibly the best part of the book. If you are trying to decide which DB to use you should definately buy this book.

As far as typos and accuracy I have never read a book in 35 years that did not have both problems. I know a lot of software bugs get blamed on examples but I haven't noticed anything wrong with the JDBC or C implementation material that I used.

Overall I give the book three stars:
1. It's too expensive for what is in it.
2. It fails at being Rigorous like I expect from O'Reily.
3. Youv'e only got two choices on MySQL as a far as I know and O'Reilly was cool enough to print one.
4. I have 6 1/2 feet of OReilly books that I have collected over the years. This is not up to their standards in my IMHO.

Being a loyal O'Reilly customer, I pre-ordered this book before it was released. Big mistake.

I found this book to be, for the most part, a waste of money. First off, I think O'Reilly made a mistake when they attempted to cover both MySQL and mSQL in one text. Had they stuck with one database, the book would have been a fairly complete reference but instead, it seems to take a mostly superficial look at the two. I found the constant comparisons between mSQL and MySQL to be distracting and annoying. Secondly, I think this text focused too heavily on the configuration of the database engine itself and not enough on the building of databases and the SQL language. In my opinion, the only redeeming value that this book had was the Perl programming examples.

I bought this book having never before used SQL or MySQL. After a few hours of reading, I gave up on it and went to the online MySQL reference instead, which is actually quite decent.

I was browsing SQL books at the local bookstore the other day and thumbed through Paul DuBois' book, which seemed to be a much better reference to the database.

After reading about half the book, I'm now more aware of what I've already done with other databases and hopefully can better utilize MySQL. If you're looking for a book to hold your hand through the entire process of creating a database application, you'd better look elsewhere. MySQL & mSQL assumes the reader is not a dummy (like some series of books are written toward) and has enough programming background to effectively apply the concepts presented.

Having a background in developing web applications in Cold Fusion, much of the concepts presented were not new to me, but sections such as the Database Design and Performance Tuning chapters were helpful in gaining a little deeper insight on how things should be done. Since MySQL uses only a subset of SQL2, I'm glad a significant portion of the book deals with MySQL's implementation of SQL. However, I'm a little disappointed that the section dealing with PHP was miniscule in comparison to the sections dealing with Perl and JDBC. All-in-all, I'd recommend the book only if you have a programming background and are looking to expand your repertoire of database skills.

What were the editors at O'Reilly thinking when they let this book make it into publication? For a company that has such a good reputation, you'd think they would guard it by keeping to the high standards that earned it.

This book has absolutely nothing useful in it. It's not an in depth SQL book. It's not an in depth MySQL book. It's not an in depth mSQL book. It's not even close to a decent reference book (just listing function names does not make a reference). It's so poorly written that it doesn't even differentiate cleanly between mSQL and MySQL!

I think the cover animal should have been a dung beetle!

To start, mixing mySQL & mSQL into one book is not a good idea, and this implementation brought out the worst. It was often difficult to tell which the author was presently discussing. Secondly, a reader new to SQL would be very lost reading this book. It often gets lost in verbose treatment of details and delivers disappointingly little useful info. The most potentially useful chapter, #10, offers a sample application in Perl. However, the application is so obscure and the explanation is so poor that the example is not useful. O'Reilly books used to uphold a high standard but have been slipping fast in the last couple years. This work and others makes me seriouly question relying on the cover to assume adequate quality.

It bounces around too much. Take my advise on this one. Get "MySql" by Dubois.. a much better book. This one is just pure pathetic. It touches on subjects it needs to go into detail about. The DBI section was HORRIBLE! It assumed you knew things that most people that bought this book didn't. Don't buy this book.. get a quality one.

Two thumbs down on this one. The treatment of MySQL and mSQL together is especially confusing. Examples leave much to be desired. The reference section is okay, but not as complete as online documentation. Save your money on this one and buy Paul Dubois' "MySQL" instead.