| First published a decade ago, the Theory and Practice of Relational Databases gained fairly noticeable popularity, particularly amongst those readers to whom it was primarily addressed—the students. After a decade, however, any book needs reviewing, for the field will have developed, presentation could be improved, choice of topics might be reflected upon and, importantly, the comments from the readers addressed.
Databases evolved into a classic component of computing degrees. The subject became well supported by a wealth of research, exceptional industrial experience and numerous books covering a wide range of topics. However, books on databases run into voluminous proportions and tend to cover the whole spectrum of the subject thus constituting a monographic source of reference rather than being a learning aide.
The book we are presenting now is meant to be just that—a tutorial text that assists the process of learning. It is supposed to have a technological bias, to present the chosen topics in a concise manner, and to incite better understanding through explanations and illustrative examples. In short, the book is meant to retain those features that made the previous edition successful.
Naturally, the book does not aspire to cover all aspects of databases nor does it pretend to present the relational theory in its entirety. The focus is on a coherent, systematic coverage of database design. The primary objective of this book is to present a reasonably comprehensive explanation of the process of the development of database application systems within the framework of the set processing paradigm. |
