I have been reading this book by Chris Date. I have often found that reading the course books supplied by the university is not enough - not that I think that the university books are bad, they're not - its just that sometimes I need to see things written differently before they sink into my dense numbskull of a brain that I have.
Anyway, I like this book. There's no doubting that Date knows his field. And he worked alongside Ted Codd. Its also clear from the outset that Date's view of SQL is, how shall we say, not very favourable. In fact, on Page 2, he states "SQL /= The Relational Model" and goes on to say that if your only knowledge of the Relational Model comes from your knowledge of SQL then you don't know the Relational Model!. He couldn't really be any ore clear than that.
I like his writing style. Quite short and succinct. A little bit of humour - but just enough - not like one computing book I started to read, where the author dribbled on advising his readers to go and get a coffee while they thought about some stunning statement he had just made. He lost me as a reader almost immediately! Strangely enough, I can't remember the name of the book, or the author - thats the kind of impact it made upon me. Anyway, I digress.
But its early days - I'm still only on chapter 1. But my gut feeling right now is that I will last out until the end of the book and that it will help me with this course.
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