DB2 Developer's Guide (5th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: What a winner!
Review: This is the first time I have used any of Craig S. Mullins's books. I found it to be indispensible for those who wish to have a clear and readable companion to help them with their understanding of DB2 UDB for OS/390. Although IBM's manuals online are essential for the minute details, this book helps simplify matters so that you can apply the required jobs, utilities, names and so on in a coherent and safe way. It probably means thatyou have the equivalent of 2 years or more DBA experience just by keeping it on your desk. As a mainframe programmer, I have found that it has enabled me to support DB2 Databases with an expertise which would have taken me a number of years to acquire without Mr Mullins's help. I must thank him for giving me a big boost to my career.

Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive book on DB2 that I have come across
Review: With over 25 years experience as an application developer on IBM mainframes, including 15 years with DB2, I thought that there was little that I didn't know until reading Craig S. Mullins book. It goes into the depth required (and beyond) for professional developers and even deeper into the domain of the DBA's territory. An excellent source of reference with a good index, but a novice might require a lot of determination to filter out the parts that meet their requirements.

Rating:
Summary: Very extensive
Review: [A review of the 5th EDITION 2004.]

IBM invented relational databases and its DB2 is one of the company's core technologies. While it trails Oracle in market share, the capabilities as shown here by Mullins are probably at least the equal of Oracle's 10g.

This book is designed for a full time DB2 administrator or developer, who needs an extensive reference on it. It's fair to say that you would not want to learn the theory of relational databases from this book. Sadly, there is only one, passing reference to E F Codd, in the context of normalisation of data. Minimal acknowledgment of the founder of relational modelling. Seek a learning of theory elsewhere.

Instead, the book focuses on all the options built into DB2. By now, possibly person-centuries of IBM's programmer sweat have gone int this latest version 8. You can take advantage of this accrued expertise. Though the time needed to absorb a chapter may be nontrivial.