Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Price over $130? Whew! But Kroenke's text is comparable in price (when purchased new) with its major competitor, Hoffer, Prescott, and McFadden's 7th edition (HPM), with which I will compare Kroenke's text below. (HPM is by the same publisher; eventually all textbooks will be sold by only one publisher!) To help with the price, I will not ask my students to buy a supplementary text for the database we choose to use, but will provide a few on library reserve.
Kroenke's text is geared more to the computer science major than to the business information systems major. For example, Kroenke recognizes that mySQL is now industrial strength, and so includes a discussion of it. For example, HPM is 700 pages of fine print, busy diagrams, and wordy explanations some of which talk down to the student ("A 'term' is a word or phrase that has a specific meaning for the business"). Kroenke's is 675 open, clearly written, succinct pages. At my college there is a sequence of courses for databases, another sequence for software engineering, and a third sequence for system analysis. HPM tries to do some of all of three of these topics, thereby diffusing a database focus. Kroenke's text by contrast is focused. In fact, the apparently comparable length to HPM is misleading, because which end chapters you read in Kroenke depends on the database you choose.
As the publisher's blurb says, Kroenke made a wise decision to introduce (easy) SQL early. And I add that Kroenke continues to introduce hard SQL later, such as nested EXISTS for the computer science major. HPM introduces SQL later, and only the easy parts.
XML is becoming increasingly important to database users. Kroenke's treatment of XML is adequate; HPM's treatment is cursory.
The chief advantage of HPM over Kroenke is the consistent use of a really excellent Mountain View Community Hospital project from beginning to end, providing continuity and depth.
I have been using Kroenke since the first edition. (I missed only the second and ninth editions.) So this is a biased review, in which it is hard for me to shake my history of good experience with previous editions.
I am among those sad to see that Kroenke's Semantic Object model didn't catch on, but given that it didn't, I'm glad that he finally relegated it to an appendix.
I am glad that Kroenke's text can be purchased for only $8 more with a CD containing Oracle or SQL Server, although I will use mySQL.
In short, I'm still a member of the Kroenke fan club.
--Gene Chase
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