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The PG docs are surprisingly good. Good enough to learn from. I remember learning my first SQL back in like 1999 or 2000 by reading the PG docs in the back of m

The PG docs are surprisingly good. Good enough to learn from. I remember learning my first SQL back in like 1999 or 2000 by reading the PG docs in the back of my parents minivan. Good times!

paulie_a 9y ago
I don't mean to knock the pg docs but I honestly come away reading them with the feeling "what did I just read?". They seem dense and dry. So personally I appreciate the articles like this to help me really learn. I will skip over official documentation and go to this sort of content.
- jlg23 9y ago
  > They seem dense and dry. I consider that a feature. I loathe wasting my time by having to dig through layers of prose to get some fact. But they are probably not suitable as a tutorial, they only make sense when you already know relational database basics and need info on pg-specifics.
  - paulie_a 9y ago
    It's a personal preference I guess. I'd rather hit up stack overflow and find a common English answer to a similar problem that usually includes an example. Django suffers from the same thing... excellent docs, that just seem unapproachable day to day. Basically when I Google something, I'm skipping the first 2-3 official links that in fact contains the info I need, but instead clicking the one that summarized it more plainly
    - mgkimsal 9y ago
      If it doesn't actually resonate with you, and you don't come away with the understanding you need, it's most certainly not a 'feature' but a 'bug'. I think some projects see dense/thicks docs that keep a high barrier to entry as a feature itself as well. If they're not approachable, they're not 'excellent'.
      - paulie_a 9y ago
        I've been a django developer for a decade and keep hearing from others how great their docs are. I barely ever use them. My biggest complaint is they give examples without any context. I can't look up a feature without knowing 12 other things before

The PG docs are surprisingly good. Good enough to learn from. I remember learning my first SQL back in like 1999 or 2000 by reading the PG docs in the back of my parents minivan. Good times!

paulie_a 9y ago

I don't mean to knock the pg docs but I honestly come away reading them with the feeling "what did I just read?". They seem dense and dry. So personally I appreciate the articles like this to help me really learn. I will skip over official documentation and go to this sort of content.

jlg23 9y ago
> They seem dense and dry. I consider that a feature. I loathe wasting my time by having to dig through layers of prose to get some fact. But they are probably not suitable as a tutorial, they only make sense when you already know relational database basics and need info on pg-specifics.
- paulie_a 9y ago
  It's a personal preference I guess. I'd rather hit up stack overflow and find a common English answer to a similar problem that usually includes an example. Django suffers from the same thing... excellent docs, that just seem unapproachable day to day. Basically when I Google something, I'm skipping the first 2-3 official links that in fact contains the info I need, but instead clicking the one that summarized it more plainly
  - mgkimsal 9y ago
    If it doesn't actually resonate with you, and you don't come away with the understanding you need, it's most certainly not a 'feature' but a 'bug'. I think some projects see dense/thicks docs that keep a high barrier to entry as a feature itself as well. If they're not approachable, they're not 'excellent'.
    - paulie_a 9y ago
      I've been a django developer for a decade and keep hearing from others how great their docs are. I barely ever use them. My biggest complaint is they give examples without any context. I can't look up a feature without knowing 12 other things before