Some notable ones:
Nested set model by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
This is particularly important in SQL: Nested set model in SQL, as it is an efficient way to transverse trees there, since querying parents every time would require multiple disk accesses.
As a tree:
As the sets:
 __________________________________________________________________________
|  Root 1                                                                  |
|   ________________________________    ________________________________   |
|  |  Child 1.1                     |  |  Child 1.2                     |  |
|  |   ___________    ___________   |  |   ___________    ___________   |  |
|  |  |  C 1.1.1  |  |  C 1.1.2  |  |  |  |  C 1.2.1  |  |  C 1.2.2  |  |  |
1  2  3___________4  5___________6  7  8  9___________10 11__________12 13 14
|  |________________________________|  |________________________________|  |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
Consider the following nested set:
0, 8, root
  1, 7, mathematics
    2, 3, geometry
      3, 6, calculus
        4, 5, derivative
        5, 6, integral
      6, 7, algebra
  7, 8, physics
When we want to insert one element, e.g. limit, normally under calculus, we have to specify:
  • parent
  • index within parent
so we have a method:
insert(parent, previousSibling)
Each transaction isolation level specifies what can or cannot happen when two queries are being run in parallel, i.e.: the memory semantics of the system.
Remember that queries can affects thousands of rows, and database systems like PostgreSQL can run multiple such queries at the same time.
MySQL by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Create user for further logins without sudo askubuntu.com/questions/915585/how-to-login-mysql-shell-when-mysql-have-no-password/1325689#1325689:
sudo mysql -e "CREATE USER $USER"
Create test user with password:
sudo mysql -e 'CREATE USER user0 IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY "a"'
sudo mysql -e 'GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database_name.* TO "user0"'
and login as that user:
mysql -u user0 -p
Login with password given on the command line:
mysql -u user0 -pmypassword
The IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password part is to overcome "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server" when connecting from Node.js.
List users:
sudo mysql -e 'SELECT * FROM mysql.user'
View permissions for each user on each DB: serverfault.com/questions/263868/how-to-know-all-the-users-that-can-access-a-database-mysql
sudo mysql -e 'SELECT * FROM mysql.db'
List databases:
sudo mysql -e 'SHOW DATABASES'
Create database:
sudo mysql -e 'CREATE DATABASE mydb0'
Destroy database:
sudo mysql -e 'DROP DATABASE mydb0'
Show tables in database:
sudo mysql -e 'SHOW TABLES' mydb0
or:
sudo mysql -e 'SHOW TABLES FROM mydb0'
PostgreSQL by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Had a look at the source tree, and also felt good.
If Oracle is the Microsoft of database, Postgres is the Linux, and MySQL (or more precisely MariaDB) is the FreeBSD (i.e. the one that got delayed by legal issues). Except that their software licenses were accidentally swapped.
The only problem with Postgres is its name. PostgreSQL is so unpronounceable and so untypeable that you should just call it "Postgres" like everyone else.
SQLite by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2026-08-21
The minimalism, serverlessness/lack of temporary caches/lack of permission management, Hipp's religious obsession with efficiency, the use of their own pure Fossil version control[ref]. Wait, scrap that last one. Pure beauty!
Official Git mirror: github.com/sqlite/sqlite
Create a table
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 "
CREATE TABLE 'IntegerNames' (int0 INT, char0 CHAR(16));
INSERT INTO 'IntegerNames' (int0, char0) VALUES (2, 'two'), (3, 'three'), (5, 'five'), (7, 'seven');
"
List tables:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 '.tables'
output:
IntegerNames
Show schema of a table:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 '.schema IntegerNames'
outputs the query that would generate that table:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'IntegerNames' (int0 INT, char0 CHAR(16));
Show all data in a table:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 'SELECT * FROM IntegerNames'
output:
2|two
3|three
5|five
7|seven

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact