Theory without practice

Despite the sometimes critical earlier reviews I was hoping for an informative read. I was disappointed. There is theory in this book, no doubt, but where is the practice? Date goes on and on about the many failings of SQL, or to say it more in style, he pontificates on the sins of SQL against the one true relational model as, incidentally, incarnated in his own Tutorial D.

The writing is tedious as Date constantly refers to what he will say, what he has said, and what he won't say. The list of suggested readings may be an indication of the status of Date's views in the wider database (research) community: on three pages he almost exclusively refers to publications by himself or his close buddies.

I'd be willing to forgive all these shortcomings if I had learned one great practical idea in the book, just one thing that makes me a better software developer. Alas, no. For the theory alone it's hardly worth slogging through this volume, slim as it is. Instead, I recommend a solid academic textbook, such as Database Systems, The Complete Book by Garcia-Molina et al. It's dry book, but without the preaching.

Other Reviews

• C.J.Date Database in Depth
• forget this and just get SQL and Relational Theory
• The relational model in depth
• Theory without practice
• Grumpy theory