And another book

While on the flight to Perth, I read Joe Celko's new book on SQL Programming Style.

It certainly was an interesting read and quite thought-provoking. Can't say I agree with all his conclusions though. For example, even though I've read his arguments why, I just don't see “invoice_nbr” as a better column name than “InvoiceNumber”. It's no doubt my background that clouds this. But on many, many other recommendations he makes, I couldn't agree more.

I'll be tackling details from it on our SQL Down Under mailing list (details at www.readify.net) over the next few weeks to get others' reactions around the country. If you're not a member of the list, just email the subject “subscribe” to mailto:sqldownunder@listserver.readify.net?subject=subscribe. We'd love to have you take part in the discussions.

If you are building standards for your organisation's coding, you should at least read this book before going any further. It will force you to explore areas you might not have considered, even if you don't agree with all the findings.

Joe realises not everyone will agree with him but he wants them to fully justify why so I hope to do that for the ones I don't like as the discussion progresses.