Customer Reviews

Using Oracle 8 (Special Edition Using)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am primarily a Solaris system admin who wants to learn more about the inside of Oracle and what it takes to keep it up and running. The O'Reilly titles were a major disappointment since most of their stuff usually rocks, but let's hope for better 2nd editions on those along with some good tutorial material. The Oracle Press titles are totally disorganized and a major embarassment! David Austin has put together a great book with Using Oracle 8, and if you have to suffer through NT (and thank God I don't), he has plenty of material on Oracle Enterprise Mgr (all of chapter 4). Then he moves on to the nitty gritty, with a Unix-oriented or at least generic "pure Oracle" approach. I have spent two weeks browsing and reading various Oracle books and good choices are hard to find. I strongly recommend Alomari's "Oracle8 and Unix Performance Tuning" as well.

First let me qualify by saying I have worked with Oracle for over 4 years and that I read this book as a refresher to learn the new features of Oracle 8. I mostly stick with the O'Reilly series, but I have to say this is a very good reference book. Who ever gave this book one star is full of crap. If you knew all of the concepts and procedures for running Oracle that are contained in this book, then you are on your way to becoming an Oracle DBA. Notice I said "on your way", which means that you would not yet be qualified to be an Oracle DBA after reading this book, but you would have an excellent foundation of the material that an expert DBA needs and uses everyday. There may have been a few mistakes here or there, but for $30 it's the best deal you'll ever find.

Most of the books I've read on Oracle assume you already know what you are doing, and have taken classes. This book is fairly easy to read, and covers material in great detail. I should warn you--some of the examples are incomplete, and occasionally incorrect. But considering its price, I'd consider it a good starting point for a beginner.

One of the reviews expressed dissapointment at its lack of PL/SQL coverage. This is not a programming book. For PL/SQL, I suggest O Reilly's Oracle PL/SQL Programming.

A very good book on Oracle8 administration, performance tuning, backup and recovery. Full of well organized useful information.

I found this book on sale for $15, and since my company is using Oracle more and more I picked it up. Having read other books in the USING series, I expected this one to be quite good. Unfortunately, it's not. The author does not explain things well at all, and has a nasty habit of using abbreviations but only explaining what they stand for once. I found myself continually turning back pages to find out what an abbreviation stood for.

There is also not nearly enough information on PL/SQL in this book. This is one of the primary reasons I purchased it in the first place. And this book is definitely not suited for beginners. I have limited Oracle experience, and am also experienced in SQL and found this book to be above a beginner's level. Also, it is a very dry read.

I am a Microsoft SQL Server expert and purchased this book to learn about Oracle. I purchased it because the advertising for the book said that it was for beginners. Even though I am very knowledgable about SQL databases, I found this book very hard to follow. It leaves out many important areas, and it assumes the reader knows a lot, especially about the SQL language. I would not recommend it to people who are learning Oracle for the first time.

This is an outstanding book on all levels. It gives a great deal of coverage to the very important issues of developing and maintaining an Oracle Database. Furthermore, the specific examples and step by step outline to complete certain tasks are exceptional. This book offers so much more than the typical Oracle Press Book. The book is well organized, full of real life examples, and a neccessary tool for every Oracle professional.

The content of this book is fairly good, however there is no CD-ROM included. I had not realized there was supposed to be one until the book referenced a spreadsheet. I called the publisher at that point and the person I talked to said they might have planned to have a CD, but there was not one. So, I would not spend your money on this book when there are others that actually include the information they promise.

The book does not have the in-depth coverage that expert SQL users would expect. If you are a beginner then it may suit you just fine. There are not enough nuts and bolts for people like me who really need the complete reference book.

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