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A review by arachne_reads
The Manga Guide to Databases by Co Ltd Trend, Mana Takahashi, Shoko Azuma
5.0
Learning things as an adult isn't an easy thing. We're ridiculously hard on ourselves when the basics of a thing, like notation and terminology, are entirely new, and we just don't get them. The Manga Guide series provides a little breathing room to that effect here.
The "plot" is silly, and unselfconscious about it-- it's not trying to be anything other than a light device for teaching, and unlike some of the teaching materials and videos of the 80's, it doesn't pretend to seriousness of plot. Moreover, it doesn't talk down to the reader. It embraces silliness AND DOESN'T INSULT THE READER'S INTELLIGENCE. That is HUGE when you already feel self conscious about the fact that you don't know a thing.
It covers all of the basics needed for a real introduction to SQL, and has a meaty set of exercises on using SQL to perform queries. The best part of it is that as a comic, images are built in to its narrative flow, so it becomes easy to add visuals for concepts that really require them to understand or benefit from concretizing abstractions.
There were some topics I needed a little extra explanation to get at understanding how they work, but this is a solid place to start if you're new to programming and need to learn about SQL.
And pun bonus: only after I started the book and my partner looked over my shoulder only to snerk and giggle did I feel self conscious. "What?" I asked. "Kingdom of Kod," they said. "I hate to ask you to explain a joke," I said. "It's probably a pun on Ed Codd," they said. "SQL is built on the relational model he described in a paper." "Ah!" I said, and snerked too. Then I fell down a rabbit hole of questions about how this all came about. Well done!
The "plot" is silly, and unselfconscious about it-- it's not trying to be anything other than a light device for teaching, and unlike some of the teaching materials and videos of the 80's, it doesn't pretend to seriousness of plot. Moreover, it doesn't talk down to the reader. It embraces silliness AND DOESN'T INSULT THE READER'S INTELLIGENCE. That is HUGE when you already feel self conscious about the fact that you don't know a thing.
It covers all of the basics needed for a real introduction to SQL, and has a meaty set of exercises on using SQL to perform queries. The best part of it is that as a comic, images are built in to its narrative flow, so it becomes easy to add visuals for concepts that really require them to understand or benefit from concretizing abstractions.
There were some topics I needed a little extra explanation to get at understanding how they work, but this is a solid place to start if you're new to programming and need to learn about SQL.
And pun bonus: only after I started the book and my partner looked over my shoulder only to snerk and giggle did I feel self conscious. "What?" I asked. "Kingdom of Kod," they said. "I hate to ask you to explain a joke," I said. "It's probably a pun on Ed Codd," they said. "SQL is built on the relational model he described in a paper." "Ah!" I said, and snerked too. Then I fell down a rabbit hole of questions about how this all came about. Well done!