On Tue, 2010-11-09 at 10:55 -0500, Howard Roberts wrote: > On Tue, 2010-11-09 at 10:18 -0500, Paul Tiseo wrote: > > let's return to the topic of learning SQL, > > factual or experiential. > > I think that would be most productive, yes. Vincent originally asked > about "a free package that I can install at home to start to work with > SQL?"
The initial responses could have been better for sure. > Wouldn't it be more helpful to know more about what Vincent means by > "work with SQL", specifically, his familiarity with SQL and more > broadly, his working knowledge of relational databases in general, > creating tables and normalizing data, etc, before making specific > suggestions? Anyone not familiar with databases and SQL has much to learn and benefit by reading the InterBase Data Defition guide. It covers many core concepts that will benefit you regardless of what RDBMS you end up working with. Also any database or documentation that covers and teaches you about standard SQL features, will apply to any RDBMS that is standards compliant. I should have started out by saying, Firebird freely available, is easy to install on a variety of operating systems, and has documentation that is really good for anyone seeking to learn SQL. Providing a link to the document that newbies should read first, the Data Definition guide. > Granted, each RDBMS system varies a bit in its implementation of SQL, Not if they are standards complaint. The SQL standards exist for a reason. Otherwise you would have each RDBMS interpretation of SQL which you still come across. But it makes learning a nightmare, because you learn things that are specific to a particular RDBMS. > and each has different strengths and weaknesses, but depending on > Vincent's needs and goals, worrying about such implementations details > may be putting the cart before the horse right now, or maybe exactly the > sort of information he is seeking? Exactly, thus anyone seeking to learn who presently lacks the knowledge. Would very much benefit from something that discusses general concepts. Not just covering things that are specific to that software/RDBMS. Anyone who already knows about database, will likely find the InterBase Data Definition guide to be very informative and general. I really can't stress enough how much it is newbie material. I wasn't suggesting reading something like the operations guide to start with. Which talks about all sorts of stuff, like disk I/O, and other system limitations that can effect a databases performance. Once again things that are not really specific to Firebird/InterBase, though some stuff is. Everything I learned was at home, SQL, Java, Linux, C, etc. Sure not everyone can follow my path. But most of it was just reading stuff that anyone can read themselves, if they so choose to ;) -- William L. Thomson Jr. Obsidian-Studios, Inc. http://www.obsidian-studios.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
