Negative Positive
Title: Ultimate Oracle Reference
Review: 1. Oracle online documentation is notoriously awkward. This book is no exception. But who cares? Forget the CD -- use the print. If you really want something to view on your computer, join the Oracle Developer Program. It's free, and many of the CD's have ALL the Oracle manuals in HTML format! Plus you get free trial software including the server software.2. This book is NOT suitable for learning the basics of SQL (such as how to do a join). Any basic "Learning SQL" book will teach that. What it IS suitable for is finding function syntax, format masks, as well as understanding more complex issues like how the SQL optimizer works and how to code accordingly. It's also not a very good PL/SQL reference. Check out the author Steven Feuerstein for his books on those subjects.Don't expect one book to do it all, but damn, this book comes pretty close. For in-depth server information, try the Oracle Server Concepts manual.
Is the review positive or negative? 