1.5. Books and Other Publications

Besides the mailing list archives mentioned in the last section, MySQL AB provides extensive online documentation of the MySQL server and all of the other software it distributes. You can find documentation at http://dev.mysql.com/doc. You can read the material online or download it in a couple of formats (e.g., HTML or PDF). It is also available in hardcopy format: MySQL Language Reference and MySQL Administrator's Guide, both from MySQL Press.

In addition to this book, O'Reilly Media publishes a few other books on MySQL worth buying and reading. O'Reilly's mainline MySQL book is Managing & Using MySQL (2002) by George Reese, Randy Jay Yarger, and Tim King (with Hugh E. Williams). George Reese has compiled a smaller version called MySQL Pocket Reference (2003). For common practical problem solving, there's MySQL Cookbook (2002) by Paul DuBois. For advice on optimizing MySQL and performing administrative tasks, such as backing up databases, O'Reilly has published High Performance MySQL (2004) by Jeremy D. Zawodny and Derek J. Balling.

O'Reilly also publishes several books with regard to the MySQL application programming interfaces (APIs). For PHP development with MySQL, there's Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL (2004) by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane. For interfacing with Perl to MySQL and other database systems, there's Programming the Perl DBI (2000) by Alligator Descartes and Tim Bunce. To interface to MySQL with Java, you can use the JDBC and JConnector drivers and George Reese's book, Database Programming with JDBC and Java (2002).

In addition to published books on MySQL, a few web sites offer brief tutorials on using MySQL topics. The O'Reilly Network often publishes articles on MySQL and the APIs for Perl, PHP, and Python in its online publication ONLamp.com (http://www.onlamp.com/onlamp/general/mysql.csp). Incidentally, I've contributed a few articles to that publication on MySQL and related topics. I've also written many articles on MySQL for my column on Unix Review.com (http://www.unixreview.com/mysql). MySQL AB also provides some in-depth articles on MySQL. You can find them at http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles. Many of these articles deal with new products and features, making them ideal if you want to learn about using the latest releases available even while they're still in the testing stages. Developer Shed (http://www.devarticles.com/c/b/MySQL) and Web Monkey (http://search.hotwired.com/webmonkey/?query=mysql) are additional educational resources. All of these online publications are subscription-free.