[ale] Humor: MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

[James Sumners]

The video was funny.

I agree that people use, and design, software incorrectly. Changing
the DB isn't going to fix that problem.

*shrug*

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-10-28 at 13:09 -0400, James Sumners wrote:
>> PostgreSQL may be better, I haven't taken the time to check it out.
>> But a video created less than 2 months ago should at least get the
>> MySQL features correct. Before the first minute is over they say MySQL
>> doesn't support "Transactions" or "foreign keys". Hmmm, [1] and [2]
>> says otherwise. Oh, and they say MySQL isn't "ACID compliant." Here's
>> a quote from [1]: "InnoDB [MySQL table type] provides full ACID
>> compliance."
>>
>> Anyway, back to watching the rest of the video.
>
> Ahh, that'd be why you got this the way you did.
>
> While the InnoDB tables support those, they are still optional features.
> You can disable them.
>
> There are two major reasons that I started using PostgreSQL for my
> personal and commercial projects some time back:
>
>  * Referential integrity is absolutely rock-solid.  There is no way
>    to disable it, no way to evade it, and this makes supporting apps
>    that other people will eventually modify a great deal easier.
>
>  * PostgreSQL's rich support for data types is second to none.  Well,
>    maybe there is another database server that does it better, but if
>    so, I am not aware of it.
>
> Working on projects that use MySQL anymore causes me a great deal of
> frustration---mostly because of the lack of types, but also because of
> the great many inconsistent databases that I come across.  It is a huge
> sign of suck when you come across an application that both uses a
> database server that isn't configured to enforce referential integrity
> and the application doesn't bother either, because then you have to do
> things like write a fsck-like program that is specific to the
> application's schema just to identify and attempt to resolve trouble.
> This has been the cause of more grief than I can possibly enumerate.
>
> Now, one can argue that a properly designed and a properly written
> application will never encounter these issues, even if the application
> is using flat files.  That would be an accurate assessment.
> Unfortunately, many applications today don't do that.  They will go the
> extra mile to ensure data integrity when they're using a home-cooked
> format, usually.  But many people seem to think that just because
> they're using a relational database server that those problems aren't
> the job of the application to manage anymore.  That is certainly not the
> case if one is using SQLite (not that anyone SHOULD be using that in a
> production environment as anything other than a simple, mostly read-only
> thing perhaps for a very specialized Web application) or an improperly
> configured (or configured for "performance") instance of MySQL.
>
>        --- Mike


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59