Can I have my cake and eat it too please. When introducing a subject - which I guess the docs are really doing for the most part - then I agree with Alberto, talk in general terms and don't let a specific example get in the way - hierarchical queries for example are hierarchies - you don't need to go into the org chart specific example. I also however do want material that presents appropriate uses of very specific examples to show how you might apply the generic technique, something that goes from theory to practice - I'd like to avoid dept and emp though. This probably is where book authors could really add value. In case anyone missed it though you can have a bit of trouble if your examples get too interesting http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/feuerstein_1000.html On Nov 5, 2007 10:47 PM, Alberto Dell'Era <alberto.dellera@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > My personal preference has always been for abstract examples, > i.e. I prefer the tables being presented as parent/child instead of > DEPT/EMP. > > I've always found examples such as the one you mention > quite distracting, since I need to first understand the example > in order to understand the feature being illustrated ... and > what gets memorized is the abstract meaning, not the > reference to the Rabbit Colony, that gets filtered out > from my memory almost immediately. > > Still, it's a matter of personal preference of course, you > find them interesting and lively and that's perfectly valid as well ;) > > > I've been reading through the Oracle PL/SQL Users Guide and Reference > > from various years and noticed that the 11g documentation seems to be > > "lightening up" a little. > > -- > Alberto Dell'Era > "the more you know, the faster you go" > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.orawin.info