[geeks] MySQL question

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 25 May 2004, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> Personally, I think MySQL, particularly MySQL4, is much maligned with
> insufficient cause.  True, it's not appropriate for all uses.  But for
> many, it's perfectly fine.

Possibly.  I was severely burned by MySQL 3.  And I've only briefly used
MySQL 4.  It's supposedly better, but I've already moved all my non-read-
only databases to PG.  Not only have I not lost data, but PG is -much-
faster for the traditional transaction-based stuff that I work with.

> Or PHP, or ....    Oh, and let's use lots of Flash!

*puke*  Or some J2EE.  Some web duhveloper at $ork reimplemented ftp and
lpr in J2EE as servlets because they "didn't trust IBM to do it right in
AIX".  uhh...nevermind we're an all-IBM shop in the server room, aside
from a few Solaris and Novell boxes.

> Sorry if I overreacted.

S'ok.  It's something that's been in the air the last few months.
Everyone's on-edge everywhere.

> (though also supporting, in the example of Bacula again, pgSQL and
> SQLite)

I keep thinking that SQLite sounds like a really good idea, but I have a
hard time getting past the fact that it's typeless.  I really need to
sit down and play with it more.  Embedded RDBMSes are just wonderful for
so many need-it-now applications.

> and built some very good tools on top of them.  So I'm afraid
> that comment about duh-velopers just came across as dismissing all those
> people, plus myself, as SQL-challenged morons.

Oh no, not at all.  It's just that even MS SQL[0] was a lot better RDBMS
the last time I seriously used MySQL, and I still have memories of their
first crack at transactions[1]--has that gotten any better?

But I'm spoiled.  At work we have DB/2.  Mmmm.  Only IBM could make anal-
retentive sexy.

> But still, I dislike being [apparently] dismissed as an idiot.

I didn't mean that, at all.  I'm sorry for not being clear.


[0] Well, 7.0--2000 and up have all sorts of lovely crippling that takes
    place, depending on how much you pay.  Like, tables will just go to
    hell if they get bigger than 16GB.  Oopsie.  You didn't buy the
    "Enterprise edition".  They also have creeping "feature"ism.  I
    -liked- 7.0.  A lot.
[1] <dba-barbie>"Rolling back transactions is hard!  Let's forget about
    that!"</dba-barbie>
-- 
Jonathan Patschke  ) "Being on the Internet is not the same as being
Elgin, TX         (   famous.  That's like calling Cheetos 'dinner'."
USA                )                                    --Metal Steve