How Do I get Started with Oracle?
This is actually a fairly common question and not one that is often addressed adequately. The following is the, slightly edited text of a reply sent by Howard Rogers
www.dizwell.com to someone who asked this exact question. The post is so good, that with Howard's permission I reproduce it here. The 'here' referred to below is the usenet group comp.databases.oracle.
server which can be reached via the link on the left or via your favourite newsreader.
Be patient. You're starting from scratch, so there's a lot to learn, and much of it may seem very strange to begin with. Visit The online documentation set to get access to the latest Oracle documentation (though your CD set will probably include it already). Read the official Concepts Guide. Then visit sites such as that maintained by Jonathan Lewis, and Ask Tom. Visit Google and hunt around for advice. Take nothing on face value: test it yourself to destruction. Lurk here for a month or two, and try and pick up on the sort of questions being asked, and ask yourself how *you* would answer them. Then see what answers actually come through, and compare. When you're feeling brave, post some of your answers and see how they are taken by people.
Buy books. Anything with the names Jonathan Lewis, or Thomas Kyte on the cover are *extremely* good bets for accurate advice. O'Reilly are good. As are Apress (used to be Wrox) Avoid anything that mentions OCP (Oracle Certified Professional). The qualification is not worth a damn, and leads you straight into myth territory.
If you can afford an Oracle training course (most people can't), go. Go to DBA Fundamantals I if you can... the architecture stuff they cover on that is extremely good (but you play Russian Roulette with the instructor you get. If the guy starts reading from the course notes in the first hour, then leave and ask to be scheduled with someone else at a later date). DBA Fundamentals II is quite good, but is light on networking, and the Backup and Recovery stuff is not difficult. Don't bother with Performance Tuning, because it's a badly-written course that addresses none of the real issues. I think the general thing is to get involved and to get communicating, and you've already started that by posting here. Just don't stop now.
The other general thing is to test and test and test, and verify for yourself. Experiment, and stuff the consequences. The other thing I would suggest, given your background, is that you learn Oracle at the command line, and learn *Oracle*. Worry about putting a graphical front-end app. on top of Oracle later. When you've got command-line Oracle sorted, the graphical front-ends will come as second nature, and will be better for the understanding you have of the back-end architecture and inner-workings.
And finally, enjoy yourself. Oracle is quite a majestic system. It's got an internal logic that is beautiful, and the sense of power that you can get from controlling those internal workings can be quite exhilerating. So have fun.
HJR.
译文如下：
我怎么开始学习oracle
这确实是一个非常普遍的问题并且常常不能够得到充分的解释。下面的是，来自Howard Rogers
www.dizwell.com给那些提出这个严格的问题的人的一个细长的编辑文本答复。这个公告是如此的好，因此我获得了Howard的许可把它复制在这里。关于下面的“这里”指的是 可以通过左边的链接或者你最喜爱的新闻阅读器来到达usenet group comp.databases.oracle.server 。(注：Usnet网，由成千上万个新闻组组成)
要有耐心。你现在从起跑线开始，因此有很多东西需要学习，并且开始的时候它的很多东西也许看起来十分陌生。访问在线文档集来获得最新的Oracle文档（虽然你的CD集可能已经包含它了）。阅读官方的概念指导。然后访问诸如由Jonathan Lewis维护的站点，和ASK TOM站点。利用Google来搜索相关的意见消息。不用当真：你自己来测试破坏。潜伏在这里一两个月，尝试去了解那些被问到的问题，并且问自己“你”会如何来回答。然后看那些正确答案，并作比较。当你感到勇敢的时候，张贴一些你的答案看看人们怎样被它所吸引。
买书，对于精确的意见来说，任何封面的名字跟 Jonathan Lewis, 或者 Thomas Kyte有关的都是“极其”的优秀 。O'Reilly的书是很好的。以后（以前是Wrox图灵）避免提及任何跟OCP（甲骨文专业认证）相关的东西。这个认证是毫无用处的，并且会引领你直接进入神话领域。（注：意思应该是说很快就过时）
如果你有能力参加Oracle的培训课程（大多数人都不能）。去吧。如果你可以的话就去DBA Fundamantals I ...他们涵盖的
教学结构是非常好的。（但你要和你的指导老师玩俄罗斯轮盘。如果那家伙在前面的第一个小时开始阅读课程笔记的话，那你应该离开并且要求下次安排另外一个人来教你）。DBA Fundamantals II 也颇为不错，但是在联网方面比较弱，而且备份和恢复材料并不难。不要打扰表现调整，因为它是个书面程度很大的课程，对于那些真实的问题都没有给出解答。我觉得通常是去获得相关和得到交流，同时你已经准备好从在这里张贴开始。只需要的是现在不要停下来。
其他的惯例就是测试测试再测试，和为你自己验证。
实验，并填满结果。我会建议你的其他事情是，假定你的背景，是你在命令行下面学习Oracle，而且学习*Oracle*。明显烦恼表达一个图形前端。在以后的Oralce顶端。当你得到Oracle命令行的整理时，图形前端将会成为习惯，而且将会更好地绑住理解你的后台架构和内部运作。
最后，享受学习。Oracle是一个很雄壮的
系统。它拥有一个极好的内部逻辑，而且你可以通过控制那些内部运作来感觉到一种能够使人异常兴奋的功能和影响力。因此，祝你过得愉快。
PS:此文是本人自己翻译的，翻译出来给大家浏览下。词语运用不恰当或者是翻译错误之处在所难免，欢迎大家指出其中不妥之处，一起讨论，创造一个适合于学习交流的氛围。
