Book Review - Expert Oracle Database Architecture 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions by Thomas Kyte

I have a LOT of books on Oracle. I am an avid Oracle book collector. I buy them, publishers send me them to review, I receive them as presents from family members - the works. I have been working with Oracle for over 15 years now. I have bought it, sold it, learned it and taught it. I have been using Oracle since Version 5 and I have kept every Oracle book, manual and instructor's guide I crossed paths with during that time. Remember the old paper back manuals that Oracle sent to you with the software? I've got LOTS of them! I was certified by Oracle to teach virtually the entire DBA admin track and I have kept every version of every instructor's guide I used (Version 7 to Version 10). As a result, my library consists of dozens and dozens (and dozens) of books on Oracle.

I'm only allowed to "decorate" two rooms in my house. One is my den and the other is the garage. All others belong to my wife. Which is a good thing because Martha Stewart I'm not. I decorate my den with car pictures and books on Oracle while my garage's motif is car pictures and car books. Oh, and usually a couple of cars that are "works in progress" (but my wife calls them other things). I'm very lucky that she grew up with two car crazy brothers....

The books in my den are arranged by Oracle release ranging from Version 6 to Version 10. The books are then sorted by my affinity for them. How important I think they are, how well written they are, how they rank against their fellow literary competitors.

So let me start this book review by saying that Expert Oracle Database Architecture 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions by Tom Kyte now has the lead position in my 10G section. I really like this book a lot. I can't tell you if another book will knock it off the pole position it currently holds. But I can tell you that it currently resides in the number one slot of a section that already contains close to 30 other books and manuals.

Layout and Design
The layout and design of a book are important to me. They allow me to grasp the information more quickly and find topics faster when I need to use the book as a reference. Some texts I use to educate myself, while others I use as a reference. A good design allows me to use a book as both. I can safely say that I will be using this book as both an educational tool and a reference.

A good design and layout also lets me know what the author feels is important. Kyte and his publisher Apress have designed a book that is easy for me to read and easy for me to determine what Kyte feels is important.

Let me show you an example:

All code examples in the book, including the code itself and the output it generates, are highlighted in gray. It makes the code stand out in the text. I think I need to do more of that in my blogs.

The chapter, paragraph and section headings are also well defined. This is VERY important to me when I use a book as a reference. I usually rely upon a book's table of contents and appendix when I am trying to quickly find a specific piece of information.

Although this book contains both a good table of contents and a very detailed appendix, I find that I don't need to use them when I am scanning the book looking for a particular topic. I am able to quickly flip through the pages to the chapter I want and scan the pages looking at the section headings to find that particular tidbit of information.

Writing Style
Examples, examples, examples. Extensive use of examples is a Kyte trademark. Kyte maintains an Oracle Q&A website aptly tiled "Ask Tom". My DBAs are going to the Ask Tom website to find answers to their questions just as often as they go to Metalink. Sorry Tom, I still prefer that my DBAs go to Oracle's official support site before they begin searching other sites for information. I think you'd agree. Partly because Metalink is Oracle's "official" support website. That and we pay Oracle to provide us high quality support and I want to make sure we use every resource we can.

If you scan the Ask Tom website, you'll quickly find that his primary method of simplifying complex technical concepts is to use a snippet of code as an example. Based on the positive responses he receives, the code examples work. They also work for me too. One of the chapters in the book is on Concurrency and Multi-Versioning. Information that I found particularly hard to successfully convey to students during my career as an instructor. As I was reading that chapter, I found myself thinking that I wish I had a few examples from that chapter available to me when I was teaching. Although I was still able to ensure my students understood the concepts I was trying to convey, my own examples were neither as smooth nor as blatantly clear as the ones contained in the book.

The author has lost the battle of conveying his thoughts when readers spend more time trying to understand the written prose than the underlying concepts. Tom's writing style makes the book easy to read. I'm a slow learner to begin with, I don't need to have the writer try to impress me their literary style. I want them to make every effort to clearly communicate complex and highly technical concepts to me.

I made that effort as an instructor and I expect an author of a book I buy to do the same. I would often end a discussion with a booming " DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" when I wanted to be totally sure I, and the class, were on the same page. It certainly scared them at first but by the end of class they would often yell out in unison "YES!". Hey, Oracle entrusted me with teaching new DBAs their software and I took it seriously. I didn't want to end class thinking I did my students an injustice by not giving my all. I miss that job. If my wife didn't keep forgetting what my name was (too much travel), I'd still be doing it.

Tom's easy writing style provides him with the unique ability to transform highly technical information into easily understood (and interesting) text. Tom is to be commended for making the transfer of complicated technical concepts from author to reader an extremely pleasant experience.

Content
Expert Oracle Database Architecture is part one of a series. The second book will focus more on application design and development topics. If you want to know more about the contents of the second book, as well as give Tom your opinion on what it should contain, go to Tom's personal blogsite.

The book also contains a searchable PDF on CD as an added bonus. When I get a book that has a CD with it, I feel that I'm getting my money's worth. I'd rather use a search command than flip through pages. The CD is an excellent addition to the book. Well thought out and containing loads of valuable information.

The content flow of Expert Oracle Database Architecture 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions is smooth and fluid. Don't let the title of the book fool you into thinking this book is just for developers. It most certainly is for developers and DBAs alike. The book begins with a chapter titled "Developing Successful Oracle Applications." I particularly enjoyed reading the sections titled "Defensive Programming" and "How Do I make it Run Faster." The book continues with chapters on architecture, files, memory structures, processes, locking and latching, transaction, and undo and redo. To the reader's benefit the book also provides chapters on tables, indexes, datatypes, partitioning and parallelism. Very close to the progression the Oracle classroom guides took. Classroom guides that I thought were absolutely excellent, by the way.

Tom does not intend to cover each and every administrative procedure a DBA or developer peforms on a regular basis. He does cover a wide range of administrative topics that he feels are important. With his track record and background, it would be hard to disagree with what content he feels is important and what content he doesn't. If you want to learn how to be a DBA or developer from the ground up, you should be taking Oracle classes first and using books to complement that knowledge.

Tom's latest work is no mere rehash of information covered by others. I'll be blunt; I absolutely hate books that are nothing but information "regurgitation." If you are a visitor to the Ask Tom website, you'll know that Tom is unafraid to tell you his opinion. He approaches this book the same way he approaches the Ask Tom website. He provides readers with recommendations, best practices and dozens of hints and tips that aren't covered by other Oracle books currently on the market. I read each and every technical reference manual for the databases my unit supports (Oracle and SQL Server). I don't want to reread that same information. I fully realize that you need to restate information to lay the foundation for the personal insight you are trying to transfer to the reader. But I want that opinion, that personal view of how the author thinks it should be done. I may not agree with them at times but I am looking for those personal insights on how the author feels something should be done. I want the book to teach me something new. This book accomplishes that goal and I'm glad I have it.

Wrapup
As I stated, do I agree with each and every point contained in Tom's book? No, not every single one. But when do DBA's agree with everything? Its not our nature. I will state that some of the current debates have degraded to a point where they are lowering the professional reputation of all those involved. But that's a different story.

What I can say is that Tom is one of the few people that will make me immediately reconsider my long held, cherished opinions on technical topics. I have 20 years of experience and I'm an ex-Oracle "award winning" instructor. I can think of no greater complement I can pay to a fellow technician.