[KLUG Members] MySQL adoption

[Richard Harding]

Robert G. Brown wrote:

>>the ability to have *1* would be a huge boon - and fundamentally I don't
>>see why I can't have *1* - had the developers of given applications been 
>>more "considerate" of larger issues.
>>    
>>
>There's no compelling reason why you can't have *1*; but it is often not
>an economically attractive choice to make. ... Also, applications often start life
>as a small-scale system that doesn't demand this level of abstraction, but 
>later on....
>
>  
>
Exactly. I know I started out working with linux here at work because I 
found that php and mysql provided a lot more power than my Access/ASP 
solution. I started learning from scratch. A quick small project was 
easily done with MySQL and some 30ish php files. Now over the last two 
years that has grown and grown and now includes more than 50 php class 
files, and a couple hundred other php files. Sure I would love to have 
everything be database independent now...but like everyone else I just 
can't justify the time to go back and redo so much work at the moment.

>>>>At the same time there are so many instances of these 
>>>>holy wars between various camps. No one said life as a techie was 
>>>>boring. :-)
>>>>        
>>>>
>>I really don't see anything in the thread that even vaguely resembles a
>>flame or holy war.
>>    
>>
>I don't think the author was commenting on THIS thread...
>  
>
Correct

>>Behind the PostgreSQL/MySQL debate lie interesting assumptions concerning 
>>application developement and deployment.
>>    
>>
>I would prefer to pursue that discussion, and believe that it is not framed
>well as a "PostgreSQL/MySQL debate".
>  
>
I agree with you here. I get a magazine from www.phparch.com (GREAT 
stuff if you're into PHP dev) and in their last issue they had an 
awesome article on migrating from MySQL to PG. In it the author 
discussed the limitations in MySQL and how things such as views and 
triggers were meant to be used to cut down on application code and 
perform operations that really separate out the DB layer from the 
application. I thought it was a great read because while I knew what 
triggers and views were from an db class I had in college, I have never 
sat down and looked at their practical uses. I can see how it would be 
very useful to take some operations from the code I write and hand it 
off to the database to work.

The benefits are not only the separation of logic, but in large systems 
with the application and database reside on different servers I can see 
how having the db server handle some functions would help lighten the 
load on the app side.

Really it is less MySQL vs PostgreSQL, but choosing the tool to do the 
job you need. While they overlap some, I personally view the two as two 
separate tools for different types of jobs.

I really look forward to working on a project involving PostgreSQL 
though. It really seems that it would change a lot of how I would go 
about working on an application with it as a backend compared to MySQL.

Rick