SECTION 5 -- BOOKS
<> 05.001 What is a good book on INGRES?
A Guide to Ingres
= ===== == ======
Chris Date
Addison-Wesley
ISBN-0-201-06006-X
1987
This book is getting badly out of date but it does give a nice
introduction to the older INGRES tools. It concentrates on QUEL (it
treats SQL only in passing and with barely suppressed scorn). It has a
good description of QUEL aggregate functions. University Ingres users
may find this book marginally more useful than users of CA-INGRES
would, especially because of the emphasis on QUEL.
Ingres: Tools for Building an Information Architecture
======= ===== === ======== == =========== ============
Carl Malamud
Van Nostrand Reinhold
ISBN 0-442-31800-6
1988
According to Pamela Barker's review in the February 1993 NAUIA
Newsletter, since 6.4 came out this book is a little stale too.
It is recommended for readers who already have a basic knowledge
of INGRES.
INGRES SQL Developer's Guide
====== === =========== =====
Carolyn and Jack Hursch
Windcrest/TAB/MacGraw Hill
ISBN 0-8306-2564-X (harcover)
ISBN 0-8306-2528-3 (paperback)
1992
Covers the INGRES implementation of SQL and embedded SQL. Examples
of embedded SQL use C.
Programming in SQL with Oracle, INGRES, and dBASE IV
=========== == === ==== ====== ====== === ===== ==
John Carter
Blackwell Scientific Publications,
ISBN 0-632-03136-0
1992
Roger Hill says of this book:
"It has proven invaluable to me...lots of examples of code for eg. doing
outer joins etc. The tuturial stuff on setting up databases I found to
be superfluous, but the SQL stuff was pretty good. Basic and recommended
for new DBA's (like me!)."
Introduction to INGRES
============ == ======
Margaret A. Zinky, James W. Everett, Linda J. Hawbaker
PWS-Kent Pub. Co.
ISBN 0-534-92869-2
1992
This book has examples from a complete ABF application. Students like
it, and after working through the application should gain a basic
understanding of ABF. The book is good value for money.
INGRES & Relational Databases
====== = ========== =========
D. Rothwell
McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0-07-707482-3
1992
[No first-hand reviews available.]
INGRES User Guide: Visual Programming Tools
====== ==== ====== ====== =========== =====
Peter Mathews
Prentice-Hall
ISBN 0-13-463720-8
1991
[No first-hand reviews available.]
Database Tuning: A Principled Approach
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Dennis E. Shasha
Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0-13-205246-6
1992
$32.00US
Discusses INGRES (amongst other products).
The INGRES papers: anatomy of a relational database system
=== ====== ====== ======= == = ========== ======== ======
Michael Stonebraker, editor.
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-07185-1
1986
A collection of scholarly papers on University Ingres, edited by
one of the chief architects, Professor Stonebraker. These papers
are literally only of academic interest (in the best sense of the
term).
<> 05.002 What is a good book on relational databases?
An Introduction to Database Systems, Vols 1 and 2
== ============ == ======== ======== ==== = === =
C. J. Date
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-14201-5
Now venerable, this still seems to be the standard work. Volume 1 is
in its 6th edition. This is a two volume set. The essential one is
Volume 1. This book covers all the major data management models, not
just the relational model. These books have very nice annotated
bibliographies. Fairly rigorous and academic.
Fundamentals of Database Systems
============ == ======== =======
R. Elmasri and S. B. Navathe
The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company
ISBN 0-8053-0145-3
This book compares favorably with the Date books above. It covers
all the major data models, not just the relational model. Extremely
rigorous and academic.
SQL and Relational Basics
=== === ========== ======
Fabian Pascal
M&T Books
501 Galveston Drive
Redwood City, CA 94063
ISBN 1-55851-063-X
$28.95
This is a superb book for the practitioner and novice alike. It
cannot be recommended too strongly. It is nominally aimed at the
PC database market, but there is little or nothing in it that is
really specific to PCs. The three striking features of this book
are: (1) it describes the database software selection process
using tests for relational fidelity; (2) it describes in terms
even your management can understand WHY relational fidelity is
important and why you can't get away with playing fast and loose
with Codd's rules forever, and (3) it describes how to live with
SQL's manifold defects, in a refreshingly candid way. Highly
recommended.
A Guide To The SQL Standard (Third Edition)
= ===== == === === ========
C. J. Date with Hugh Darwen
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-55822-X
Covers SQL2 (SQL/92) with an overview of SQL3. Good thorough book that
does exactly what its title says: interprets the (sometimes
impenetrable) language of the official standard in a straightforward
and lucid manner. Recommended if you wish to fully understand every
aspect of the SQL language.
<> 05.003 Where can I get a description of the SQL standard?
There are two practically identical version of the SQL2 standard
description: one from ANSI (ANSI X3.135-1992) and one from ISO
(ISO/IEC 9075:1992(E)). However, because the sale of standards
documents is a major revenue source for standards organizations,
neither version is available on-line nor in any other machine-readable
form.
A printed copy may be purchased from:
Customer Service
American National Standards Institute
1430 Broadway,
New York
NY 10018
Tel: (212)642-4900
The cost is about $230US each, plus shipping and handling. Outside
the US, the ISO document will be available from your own national
standards body.
The latest working draft [in, I believe, encapsulated Postscript] of
the SQL3 standard (X3H2-93-091/YOK-003) is available for anonymous ftp
from:
gatekeeper.dec.com (16.1.0.2) /pub/standards/sql
There is also WWW site with information on SQL and conformance testing:
http://speckle.ncsl.nist.gov/
The Validated Products List for SQL can be accessed as:
http://speckle.ncsl.nist.gov/~kailey/sql.htm
Finally, ANSI has granted NIST a non-transferable license to make an
HTML translation of SQL-86, the most obsolete of the SQL standards,
available for demonstration purposes. It will be reachable at
http://case50.ncsl.nist.gov/sql-86/
It is not a funded project and is not expected to be completed soon.
PS: ISO now has a home page at:
http://www.iso.ch/welcome.html
The ordering information for the ISO version should be there.
<> 05.004 Where can I get a (BNF) definition of SQL syntax?
The book "lex & yacc" in the wonderful O'Reilly and Associates
Nutshell series has an SQL grammar.
lex & yacc
O'Reilly and Associates
ISBN 1-56592-000-7
$29.95
Source code examples from the book can be anonymously ftp'd from:
ftp.uu.net (192.48.96.9) /published/oreilly/nutshell/lexyacc