This is a review of Expert Oracle Database Architecture: Oracle Database 9i, 10g, and 11g Programming Techniques and Solutions, Second Edition by Tom Kyte. Overall, I highly recommend this book to the target audience. The target audience is not a new programmer or someone who wants to learn SQL. It is someone who wants to learn the deep inner workings of Oracle and get copious information on the topics. If this sounds like what you are for, this book is exactly what you need and Tom will guide you through it.
I enjoyed Tom’s writing style and many examples. Often, he is giving the terminal or command prompt output while showing how to run something or why something will not work.
His early treatise on Database Engineers changed my mind about things. He strongly believes that a team should have a Database Engineer. My previous opinion was that software could help abstract that away and deal with it. Tom shows through concrete examples how even using Hibernate, a database cannot be completely abstracted away.
The level of detail in the book’s chapters is great. He seems to give a true insider’s (he is an Oracle employee) view of the Oracle Database. It seems like he spent a lot of time digging through code or talking with the developers about the exact behavior of a feature.
