[Courses] [Postgresql] What is PostgreSQL?

[Sarah Mei]

On Nov 19, 2007 6:26 PM, Michelle M <michelle at murrain.net> wrote:
> - Give us a brief intro to yourself, and why you are taking this course
> - If you haven't already, think of a concrete project you'd like to use
> PG with. Share with us a brief synopsis of the project: the problem, the
> platform, the approach you'll think you'll take, and why you think PG
> might be a good fit. It should be something that will be fun, and
> perhaps a bit challenging for you.

I'm Sarah, and I've been doing database-backed programming in Java and
Rails on Oracle and MySQL for about 9 years. All this time, I've
managed to avoid learning too much about database design or advanced
SQL, because I really love the programming part. However, I think the
time has come to fill in that area of knowledge. :)

I know this is a course specifically about Postgres, but I'm hoping to
improve my general understanding of database system architecture,
database design, and advanced SQL.

I do have a hobby project in mind, though. I play an online MMORPG
called Puzzle Pirates. In this game you are a pirate, and you can join
a crew, and your crew can band together with other crews to form a
flag. (Mayhem ensues.) I want to create a tracking application that
downloads information about crew and flag membership nightly and can
display differences over time. The developers of Puzzle Pirates have
officially blessed this sort of information gathering application; now
I just have to write it. I'll do it in Rails but I'd like to try Rails
with Postgres. Most of my trouble is with the database design; I'm not
sure how to represent what could be a lot of duplicate data - crew
membership may only change by one or two people a week. Do I store
deltas? If so, what's the best representation? Maybe this course will
help me figure it out.

I'm looking forward to reading more intros. :)

Sarah