Rating: 
Summary: In response to LXP
Review: As co-author of the book, I would like to ask what people like and don't like about the book. As we prepare to do a revision in the next 12 months it is important for us to understand our readers.
Comments like, this strange thing called LXP don't help us as LXP was only 40 pages of a 636 page book.
Comments like, hey I would have to like to see more on JDBC or Administration are helpful.
Thanks to all who purchase the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre PostgreSQL coverage
Review: For beginnners to postgreSQL , this book has a decent coverage. I will bet there is nothing to beat the Momjian online PostgreSQL reference. I have learnt
more than practical postgreSQL from Bruce.It's a sheer waste of your money.
Rating:
Summary: I don't know if the book is limited or if it's the database
Review: I am using PostgreSQL after having used MySQL for years. Even though PostgreSQL has some nice advance features (ACID, Transaction, Foreign Key), it lacks basic and simple features that are a breeze to use or perform on MySQL (Drop Column, modify columns and tables).
Rating: 
Summary: Worst O'Reilly book I've seen
Review: I came from a mySQL environment, so I had some SQL experience before tackling PostgreSQL. Basically, I breezed over the book, and when creating my data base, I remembered what the DB was able to do, and looked more closely at the parts of the book that I needed.
RE LXP, while obscurity is certainly no reason to discount something, I see no reason to go so deep into coverage of this language, when things like PHP are so much more widely used for such purposes. A far better use of those pages would have been a small discussion on DB structure and logic, and general guidelines on how to set things up efficiently. That, and a more specific description of the configuration variables before compiling the DB, preferrably going over when you would need to use those options.
Rating: 
Summary: good reference of features, lose the LXP
Review: I came from a mySQL environment, so I had some SQL experience before tackling PostgreSQL. Basically, I breezed over the book, and when creating my data base, I remembered what the DB was able to do, and looked more closely at the parts of the book that I needed. RE LXP, while obscurity is certainly no reason to discount something, I see no reason to go so deep into coverage of this language, when things like PHP are so much more widely used for such purposes. A far better use of those pages would have been a small discussion on DB structure and logic, and general guidelines on how to set things up efficiently. That, and a more specific description of the configuration variables before compiling the DB, preferrably going over when you would need to use those options.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat useful info but not very practical
Review: I ordered this book thinking that it would provide the information necessary to setup PostgreSQL and interface to it via Perl. It was somewhat useful on the first count but Perl doesn't even have a listing in the index. Speaking of the index, it is surely the poorest one I've encountered in any O'Reilly or other computer reference book I've ever seen or considered buying. It fills only 3 pages front and back. This is a 600+ page book mind you. Because of the poor index you will probably spend more time flipping through pages or using the table of contents which is rather scant as well. It is too bad that I bought this book by mail order because if I had been able to inspect it in a bookstore, I would've never bought it. The documentation that comes with PostgreSQL is more than adequate to get it installed and working. If you are looking to use Perl as your front-end language, your time and money would probably be better spent on "Programming the Perl DBI" by O'Reilly.
Rating:
Summary: not pratical
Review: I use a Postgresql database since march 2002. I bought this book in may 2002 and the book hasn't turned out the practical guide it claims to be. The index consists of only 7 pages whereas a book like Java Servlet Programming (Jason Hunter) has an excellent index of more than 50 pages. This should give you a clue to the usablilty of Practical Postgresql. Don't buy this book, turn to the user groups for help and solutions.
Rating: 
Summary: The critics are unfair, this book is VERY good
Review: I wanted to buy this book a few months ago, but after reading the reviews I relented. Finally, a few weeks ago I needed a book on PostgreSQL and it was the only one available, so I bought it. Since then I have referred to it almost everyday in my database programming duties. It is well made, well presented and goes into minute details that other books simply skip. Normally I would have given this book 4 stars, but after being misled by the bad reviews below I decided it well deserved the extra star. My only concern with this book, is that it leaves out PHP, which is a shame. Because most people I know use PHP to interface the web with PostgreSQL. if you need a book on the best Open Source database at the present, then this book should be amongst your top picks.
Rating:
Summary: big disappointment
Review: I was hoping to finally get a good book on PostgreSQL. I guess I'll keep waiting. Want specifics? The index is entirely useless (3 pages for 600+ pages of book). Incomplete data type listing and description (at least I haven't found any discussion of the old large object handling or the bytea type yet). Good things? While easily found elsewhere (like in the included documentation for PostgreSQL), the chapters on PostgreSQL Administration are adaquate as is the chapter on postgresql clients. The advert...err..chapter on LXP is pretty much fluff, as is the command reference that takes up the last hundred or so pages, thus reducing the useful pagecount to about 450.
Rating:
Summary: Worst O'Reilly book I've seen
Review: O'Reilly generally does a pretty good job, but it seems like they spent very little time on this book. The "practical" examples in it are pretty useless, and you can glean just as much through a simple web search. Just wanted to warn about one thing here: The absolute worst part of this book is the index (which is a _very_ important part of any tech book). The one listing they have under the letter K: "keywords". What about keys? A SQL book that doesn't have an index entry for keys? There's not even any "H" listing... hashes?
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