This chapter provided a gentle introduction into the world of MySQL, setting the stage with a description of how databases work, and then proceeding to an overview of the MySQL relational database management system. It offered insight into MySQL’s history and evolution, identified the core features that have made MySQL popular with developers all over the world, and discussed some of MySQL’s most common applications.

Now that you know a little bit about MySQL, it’s time to drill down to the next level of detail. The next chapter provides a more technical overview of MySQL, discussing the MySQL architecture and the important features of the MySQL database engine.

Remember: this is chapter one of MySQL: The Complete Reference, by Vikram Vaswani (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, ISBN 0-07-222477-0, 2004). Vikram is the founder of Melonfire, and has had numerous articles featured on Dev Shed. Buy this book now.