Wednesday, October 29, 2003, 5:29:25 PM, you wrote:
DW> You've probably assessed Cary's book more than anyone besides Cary
DW> himself. How much experience with Oracle do you feel a person should have
DW> before we recommend this book to them?
I'd recommend it to anyone. I tend to recommend whatever
books I like and let the chips fall where they may. Having
said that, I would couch my recommendation in different
terms depending on the my impression of the experience level
of the recommendee. I want to set the right expectation. To
a rank beginner, I might say something like:
Buy Cary's book; it's really great. He's very scientific
and methodical, and shows you how to have the database
tell *you* where the time is going. Just read the first
couple three chapters, and then you should probably get
someone a bit more experienced to help you use his
method. Or, get your boss to buy you some analysis time
using the Hotsos Profiler.
It is true that Cary's book is not the sort of thing you can
just throw at a very junior person expecting to get good
results in return. But Cary's book would at least help them
to begin thinking about the tuning problem in a methodical
and scientific way. They'd likely need other help, from
other people or other books, in order to actually accomplish
something.
This brings up an interesting question with respect to
Cary's book, and it's a question that doesn't just apply to
beginners. How are you all putting his advice into practice?
What specific things are you doing as a result of reading
the book?
To be honest, were I faced with a tuning problem, I'd want
my boss to pay for some runs using the Hotsos Profiler. I
wouldn't at all want to reinvent *that* tool. Cary's book
would give me the knowledge to collect the proper trace
data, and the knowledge to interpret the resource profile,
but I'd want a ready-made tool to generate that profile for
me.
DW> I suppose if a developer is trying to tune queries, this
DW> book might not be suitable.
Actually, isn't that much of the point of the book, to help
developers tune queries?
DW> My feeling is that even a novice DBA should be able to
DW> understand at least Part 1 and Part 3, and it would get
DW> them started on the right path. Can you confirm that?
I think that's probably a fair statement. Readers would
probably pick up bits and pieces from Part 2 as well.
Best regards,
Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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