Foreword

When I was presented with the opportunity to technically review Paul's book, I didn't expect to also get stuck with the foreword. My opinion has always been that one should never let a programmer write a book, not even a book for programmers.

I may have a small talent for producing usable programming code, but fortunately Paul has a great talent for explaining things that a lot of users may find hard to grasp otherwise. Those of us who have been working on MySQL have put a great deal of effort into making it fast and easy to use, but MySQL has many different features, and most users will need information that can only be gathered by experience in order to utilize MySQL to its fullest. Over the past year, Paul has been working on the MySQL manual, and throughout this process, he has asked us many hundreds of questions on how MySQL works in an effort to understand everything. With this book, he now shares this knowledge with you. (You are of course also welcome to work on the MySQL online manual if you want, even if you now have the shortcut to understanding MySQL in your hands.)

The MySQL manual has always been regarded by us at TcX as a technical reference to MySQL. We have always had a need for a user manual that can communicate the technical concepts in a more relaxed way. We think this book will fill this gap nicely! One of the goals of MySQL is to be as compatible with older versions as possible. We are sure that in spite of the high developing pace of MySQL, most concepts in this book will hold true for a very long time.

As long as I still have your attention, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife, Carola, for the time she has let me spend on MySQL during the last three years. To my children, Max and My, for understanding that even if their father is working at home, he isn't always available. I also want to thank David for convincing me to write MySQL, and Allan Larson for giving me the opportunity to do so. I have had a lot of help from the current MySQL team: Jani Tolonen, Sinisa Milivojevic, Antti Halonen, and Tõnu Samuel. Last, but not least, I want to thank all of those people who have written APIs and client programs and submitted patches and nice bug reports, which have helped us make MySQL the success it is today.

Michael "Monty" Widenius

Helsingfors, 1999-11-14