Rob's Technical Bookshelf

Occasionally, someone asks me for book recommendations. I get excited about this sort of thing because (IMNSHO) a quality library filled unfortunately with dead trees is of immense value to any development effort.

So, instead of banging out the same lists over and over again. I've decided to collect a listing of books I've found helpful, describe their role, toss a few of my opinions around, and hopefully keep the whole thing somewhat up to date. One caveat: I infrequently use/cite "intro" books. I rarely need them as I almost always want the unabridged explanations at hand. Also, most quality texts can be useful to an "intro" audience given selective reading.

So, with a small amount of ado::
For now, much of this list is not annotated or otherwise unfinished.
(initial creation: 22-Nov-2003 ; last modified: Monday, 27-Sep-2004 21:11:04 PDT).
I will add more texts and per-book reviews as I flush out a complete description of my ideal bookshelf.

• SQL:

  The SQL Guide to Oracle This is a very well written, clear, and easy-to-learn approach to the SQL standard in an Oracle context. Even my actress girlfriend has a copy of this book! The only downside is that its quite old. I would very much enjoy an updated edition. Whereas SQL has not changed much since 1991, Oracle RDBMS features have expanded. Buy this book anyway ... (8/10)

• PL/SQL:
• Oracle database administration and tuning:

  Oracle Performance Tuning (Nutshell Handbook) This book is a classic! (referred to by me as OPT) Also see the Oreilly page here. The only downside is that it's now a tad dated, as it was published in 1996. See my later notes for some possible companions? (9/10)

  Expert One-on-One Oracle

  Oracle Database Administration: the Essential Reference This is a decent core-reference for the multifaceted role of the Oracle DBA. There are a few places where concepts are too lightly reviewed (ie: installation), and some people complain about the edited re-use of some Oracle documentation. However, I think this book strikes a good balance. It is both concise and quite useful. (8/10)

  Oracle9i RMAN Backup and Recovery Necessary for anyone who wants to use RMAN. The only RMAN book I recommend. (9/10)

• OCI:
  OCI (Oracle Call Interface) is an unwieldy and at times unloved API, but resides within the core of many applications/libraries familiar to Oracle client programmers, and can be very useful indeed. This introductory FAQ is a good place to start. Or, this FAQ from oracle is more in-depth. Before Oracle had the tahiti doumentation search system, getting info on these internals (per se) was a difficult process that involved somehow scrying an Oracle documentation ID and ordering a printout. The only decent book I've ever seen on OCI itself was a printout of said documentation. Their book is entitled Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide -- It has (at least for now) the part number a76975. The following links should be helpful: Tahiti document index, tahiti delivered table of contents for OCI Programmer's Guide, download-west.oracle.com OCI guide contents, and index (same site).
• Solaris tuning (for databases):

  Sun Performance and Tuning: Java and the Internet (2nd Edition) Again, another dated tome (most applicable to Solaris 2.6). However, it still merits inclusion and recommendation, as the authors provide a practical and engaging description of many tuning scenarios / philosophies. Cockcroft and Pettit also go beyond simple scenario/solution decriptions and get into the meat of many performance issues, even encouraging the user down a path of creating one's own perf-monitoring tools. An aside: this is the only place I've ever heard the small Oracle trick of sticky-bitting your static .dbf files if insisting on the UFS filesystem so as to enable async inode updates -- kudos. (8/10)

• general unix system administration:
• programming languages:

  C Programming Language (2nd Edition) This is the definitive C book, written by the language authors themselves. If you're willing to make the effort to fully digest this book, there is no praise high enough. isbn: 0131103628 (10/10)

  Programming Perl (3rd Edition) The Perl Bible!: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/ isbn: 0596000278 (10/10)

  Perl Cookbook (2nd Edition) a veritable trove of perl recipies ... learn by doing ... isbn: 0596003137 (9/10)

Also, other books/thoughts that haven't made it onto my essential bookshelf. These either made a particular impression on me (positive or negative), or are references that I want to check out for future projects::

• I want a new edition of OPT. It was such an indispensible text. Oreilly, hear my call! That being said, my interest is piqued on the following tip: http://www.mga-it.com/ - the Mark Gurry (OPT co-author) & Associates consulting website, says that he was working on a 3rd edition due out in March 2002?
• Also by Mark Gurry: Oracle SQL Tuning Pocket Reference. This comes highly recommended. I'll be buying (and thus reviewing) it soon. Here's an amazon link for purchase.
• Is Optimizing Oracle Performance the replacement for OPT? The Oreilly description sounds exciting (well, you know what I mean). I have yet to grab a copy.
• More Oracle books from Oreilly: SQL Tuning, Mastering Oracle Sql, and Oracle SQL: The Essential Reference.
• I am curious about this Oracle Nutshell series book. Oneday I'll check it out ...
• MySQL is a different beast. The online documentation there is actaully the best available. In fact, you're able to buy a bound printout at the same place. (that link point to the current production version -- other versions are avialable with the tarball of each release)
• I want to check out another SQL book written by Rick van der Lans: Introduction to SQL, Mastering the Relational Database Language. The most recent edition (3rd) came out in 1999. If it's as good as The SQL Guide to Oracle, I'm excited.
• Lastly, I want to check out two more Oreilly Perl books: Mastering Algorithms with Perl (ISBN: 1-56592-398-7) and Computer Science & Perl Programming (ISBN: 0-596-00310-2)

link to other book recommendations ...

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