Karl F. Larsen wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
KFL> I'm wondering if ANYONE has used the posgress data base?
KFL> It comes already loaded on Red Hat 5.2 and I printed the
KFL> large book "PostgrSQL User's Guide" by Thomas Lockhart. It
KFL> is exactly useless to me!
Yes, Postgres works fairly well, but this is way off-topic here.
Postgres has its own home page: "http://postgresql.nextpath.com/"
KFL> I found there is a posgres login and so I can su -
KFL> postgres and I will be in that login. I did a "createdb
KFL> mydb" and it worked. Then I used psql mydb and that worked.
KFL> Then I saw that destroydb mydb works fine.
Don't use "su" to do this, since it will only do limited shell set up for the
new user rather than a full login set up. Some scripts are omitted when the
shell is other than a first-level shell, as documented.
KFL> I now have postgres open in an nxterm window by itself
KFL> and want to enter a data base which is an ascii phone number
KFL> name address list. But there is no way to do this. The book
KFL> stops here and goes off talking about SQL and without any
KFL> explanation.
KFL> What is a query?
KFL> I am just lost. Is there a REAL Postgres User's Manual?
KFL> Should I quit trying to use it because I am so stupid? The
KFL> postgres-HOWTO is even MORE confusing bringing in perl and
KFL> other things. I just want to put in names and telephone
KFL> numbers.
The Postgres documentation assumes you have a knowledge of SQL, or "Structured
Query Language," a loosely standardized (or, rather, widely vendor-enhanced)
syntax for manipulating databases. SQL has become the universal standard for
this kind of work, and there are many people who earn a good living from SQL.
There are lots of books on SQL, and I recommend "LAN Times Guide to SQL" if you
are completely at a loss. There are numerous others, including the inevitable
and execrable "SQL for Dummies."
Furthermore, Postgres is a server engine, comparable to Oracle, Informix,
Sybase, or some other commercial SQL engine. This means that you have to write
client code that communicates with it, using one of many of the supported
languages such as Perl or C. If you are not prepared to do this kind of
programming, then forget Postgres and any other SQL engine.
If all you want to do is a simple flat-file database of names and telephone
numbers, Postgres -- which is relational, not flat -- is huge overkill. Look
in Sobell's book that you recommended here a couple of days ago, and you will
see some basic techniques for doing this kind of thing which simple shell tools
such as "awk." If you are really gung ho, O'Reilly's "sed & awk" book has very
detailed coverage of how to manage ASCII flat-file databases with a large
number of examples.
-- Mike
