[lug] BLUG Poll

[George Sexton]

> dio2002 writes:
>> 1) What benefits (performance, extra programming capability, scalability,
>> functionality, etc) if any do I get moving from MySQL to Postgres and
>> possibly vice versa if any exist?

The problem with MySQL is quality. It's just not a good quality piece of 
software. So many things were done that were just plain bad ideas, and 
not dropped. Some things:

Case sensitive table names. This just isn't standard. When they 
introduced the Windows version, this should have realized this was a bad 
idea and dropped it.

Silently coercing null values into empty on insert. There's just no 
justifiable reason they ever did this.

Other limitations, like not being able to call niladic functions as 
default. I.E. Now(). This requires an insert trigger as a work-around.

Upgrades don't detect that you need to run a schema update so you end up 
with screwy errors.

A brain-damaged implementation on triggers. You have to have global 
super-user to create triggers, and it appears to me that at least in 
some 5.0.x versions, you have to have Global Super User to run those 
triggers.

Multiple storage engines, each with different capabilities. It's 
ridiculous that you have to specify the storage engine in table create 
statements to make things work.

Yeah, there are config switches to adjust lots of these behaviors, but 
if you're an ISV, you have to plan on the lowest common denominator 
because ISP's aren't going to turn things on that will break apps.

In general, I would rate MySQL below MS Access in terms of quality.

-- 
George Sexton
MH Software, Inc.
Voice: +1 303 438 9585
URL:   http://www.mhsoftware.com/