Published: November 15, 2006
Price:$69.29
568 pages
Chris Date is the main authority on all things relational -- the Relational Model, relational DBMS, relational languages etc. -- worldwide. I remember studying his "An Introduction to Database Systems" in the Soviet Union in late 1980-s. This book is a compilation of his articles published mostly on http://www.dbdebunk.com site, which he runs with Fabian Pascal.
The main topics of this book are the Relational Model and its implementations, where you will learn not only that all existing imlplementations suck, and that SQL does too, but how exactly they do it. (An unrelated yet pertinent quote from Wittgenstein, "Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is look and see how it does it."). Then, some attention is given to the basics of OOP -- he might be the last man still not sold on the wonders of it. He precedes his collection of quotes from "the object world" with this comment, "My aim is partly to edify, partly just to amuse."
It's clear thinking, accent on fundamentals, and subtle, well-applied sarcasm that makes his writings so enjoyable. When working on this review, I would start reading a certain article to check some point, and then couldn't stop. The book is both entertaining and mind-broadening, thus recommended.
