Available now in a beta-edition (ISBN for 2nd beta edition: 0-07-059985-8).
This book covers the fundamentals of modern database management systems, in particular relational database systems. It is intended as a text that can be used in an introductory database course for undergraduates, although it contains enough material to support a second course as well. The Minibase relational DBMS software has been developed in conjunction with this book, and is intended to support a variety of hands-on course projects. The book can be used, optionally with the accompanying software, in two distinct kinds of courses:
(1) A course that aims to present the principles that underlie database systems, with a practical focus but without any implementation assignments. For such a course, the software can be used to create a variety of exercises and experiments that involve no programming.
(2) A course that has a strong systems emphasis and assumes that students have good programming skills in C and C++. In this case, the software can be used as the basis for implementation projects in which students are asked to implement various parts of a relational DBMS. Several central modules in the project software (e.g., heap files, buffer manager, B+ trees, hash indexes, various join methods, concurrency control and recovery algorithms) are described in sufficient detail in the text to enable students to implement them, given the (C++) class interfaces.
Database Management Systems is published by the College Division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, and is available in a beta edition (ISBN 0-07-052522-6) for Fall 96 and Spring 97. The first edition is expected to be available by Summer 1997. The book and the software have both been class-tested at Wisconsin for several semesters, and will be class-tested at several other schools in Fall 96 and Spring 97.
Additional Information:
Supporting Materials Figures in xfig and postscript formats, lecture transparencies in MS Powerpoint and postscript formats and solutions to exercises are available to instructors.
If you have further questions, contact Raghu Ramakrishnan at Wisconsin. If you are an instructor, you can request a sample copy. If you are using the book and have found bugs or typos, or want to comment on the presentation or content, please send me mail.
December 10, 1996
Raghu Ramakrishnan [raghu@cs.wisc.edu]