Chapter 1 About This Book

Subject

This book describes the PowerDesigner Conceptual, Logical, and Physical Data Models, including how to create a CDM, LDM, and PDM, build each of the available diagrams, and generate and reverse engineer databases.

Audience

This book assumes that you are an experienced Windows user with some experience with relational databases and SQL.

Documentation primer

For information about the complete documentation set provided with PowerDesigner, see the "Getting Started with PowerDesigner" chapter of the Core Features Guide .

Typographic conventions

PowerDesigner documentation uses special typefaces to help you readily identify specific items:

monospace text (normal and bold)

Used for: Code samples, commands, compiled functions and files, references to variables.

Example: declare user_defined..., the BeforeInsertTrigger template.
bold text

Used for: New terms.

Example: A shortcut has a target object.
small caps

Used for: Key names.

Example: Press the enter key.

Bibliography

Data Modeling Essentials

Graeme Simsion, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994, 310 pages; paperbound; ISBN 1850328773

Information engineering

James Martin, Prentice Hall, 1990, three volumes of 178, 497, and 625 pages respectively; clothbound, ISBN 0-13-464462-X (vol. 1), 0-13-464885-4 (vol. 2), and 0-13-465501-X (vol. 3).

Celko95

Joe Celko, Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1995), 467 pages; paperbound; ISBN 1-55860-323-9.