PostgreSQL: Opensource Aims High

i am not a database newbie. i wouldn't say i've reached the pinnacle of dba status, but i've been running mysql db's for about five years, ms sql for eight years, and had three year stints with ingres and oracle. what follows are some interesting notes on getting up and running with postgres.
why postgres?
well, people finally know the difference between mysql and ms sql. postgres has been around for a while. it's not as flashy as mysql and even gets excluded from the l.a.m.p. moniker. but, the more i use mysql, the more i am reminded of ms access. i'm not convinced postgres isn't the dbase IV of the *nix world, but it's worth poking around. i've been intrigued with postgres since ingres and illustra in the early 90's, but it was hard to have a *nix workstation. the free nixes weren't around and the work machines were not there for development and exploration. so, when redhat decided that postgres would be their enterprise database, i was sure it was time to take another look.
platform fun
i'm a powerbook user. i've been platform agnostic for a long time. i run windows when i have to, but like os x and beos. i'm not convinced by kde and linux as a desktop. that being said, things can be a little strange with os x - it's like a combination of everything a gui should be, mostly what unix should be, and some secret sauce that will take a while to figure out. but i'm productive and i don't have to reinstall my 802.11 drivers whenever i shutdown (thanks XP).

so, i headed to the usual places for installation tips. i built my own pgsql, but for reasons i am not fully qualified to understand, my powerbook and developer tools for os x did not build readline correctly. so many little unix details to take care of. so my first attempts at using postgres were frustrating as i am sure that the two most used keys on any computer i have our the 'space' and 'backspace' keys. perfect typing is just too much pressure. i was not enjoying it.

i found this http://www.macosxhints.com/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20010410050403798&title=question+about+psql&pid=0 link and sent the poster a note offline. 
On Tuesday, December 24, 2002, at 05:17  PM, dotpipe wrote:

i know your post on macosxhints.com is sort of old, but i'm wondering if your 
install of readline fixed the annoying up arrow history problem in psql?  any hints?
<><><><><><><><><><><><>

yes.. I believe that was the fix. Annoyed the heck out of me until I figured it out.
It's been awhile since I've installed any such thing in osx. When I first installed 
OSX I went about installing the latest psql, Apache and PHP,  installed bash.. and a 
new ncftp as well as some new command line utilities such as ls, df etc..
but at some point I started over with OSX and have stuck with what came installed. 
So I don't know what luck you will have either compiling or finding a precompiled 
readline etc..

Good Luck

Kansas
so, i tracked down readline and installed it and then tried it all again. if i was doing it over, i'd try one of these two sites: the problem is they both make assumptions about where your libraries and shared code files should be and they aren't the same assumptions, so _don't_ mix and match from these two sites. the entropy site makes great packages and he keeps on top of the apache modules (which is key for any development). but, if you use Fink, this is the single best guide i found on getting up and running with os x. it's even from apple, so it's not too wacky.
books
ever try and find a book on postgres? i bet there are 30 mysql books for every postgres book. you might be saying, "why do you need a book?" because, there are plenty of times i don't want to use my computer as an e-book and i like the feel of paper. snobbish? maybe.
so, i bought the postgres book with the elephant on the cover:
cover
i started with this book and nearly read the entire thing. it's basically in two major parts - the first part is about pgsql and the second part is decent index and appendix. in the first part, there are some good pages on the history of postgres. the technical details cover what most database books cover. i learned that pg doesn't support certain types of joins yet, but it does recommend a 'union' style query to overcome _most_ needs for this.

once i had finished the elephant book, i needed something a little more in depth. so back to the bookstore. i ended up with this book:
cover
i'm still making my way through it, so no real review yet. but keep reading if you want to know why i selected it.

i looked through as many postgres books as i could find (probably six in total).
cover   cover   cover   cover   cover   cover
with the exception of the first book above (it's the postgresql developer's handbook), every one of them are the same. here's what they cover: i think they are all equally bad. in fact, many of them are by the same authors - just writing for different publishing houses. this is the danger of the technical book world now. there are no essential tomes, just the same material. no best practice books, just a survey of what might be possible. so, i chose the php + postgres book (it has a seahorse on the cover) because i didn't want a book that covered only the basics of using a database and then some possible languages. the developer's handbook has some potential later down the road for me because it covers some real world examples of building data warehouses and olap like tools with pgsql and something called EEFU. there are even a few chapters on perf tuning and other potentially good material.
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