Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 13:46:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net> To: Dan Moschuk <dan@trinsec.com> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Database holywars? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9905201334390.69006-100000@picnic.mat.net> In-Reply-To: <19990520130858.A94463@trinsec.com>
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On Thu, 20 May 1999, Dan Moschuk wrote: > > | > I'd like to stay away from the commercial database suites (i.e. Oracle) for > | > the time being, however I will eventually move to it once the database grows > | > to over 100M records. In the meantime however, I'm debating heavily between > | > MySQL and Berkeley DB with a multi-threaded socket frontend. > | > > | > Suggestions and comments? > | > | What's more important, flexibility to make changes, or speed? Anything > | that implements sql has to be far slower, but if you make many changes, > | you're going to heavily regret choosing a set of C language functions > | as the base of your DB. > > I think a proper equilibrium between the two would be most desirable, but, if > I had to choose one over the other it would definately be speed. The actual > structure of the database isn't going to change much, if at all, I would > imagine. Assuming it changes once a year, writing a conversion program > to read in the old structure and write out the new one doesn't seem quite so > horrendous. On the other hand, its a lot more annoying than a simple > ALTER .. ADD statement. :-) It's one step more complicated than that. Moving an sql database from a free implementation to a commercial implementation, while not perfect, isn't all that terrible a thing to do. Moving it from a C language implementation to sql is going to be harsh, because it's a working database, so you can't afford any bugs. The DB implementation is going to be at least an order of magnitude faster (depending on the sql database, maybe 2 orders), but if it's a money oriented thing, do it via sql, not C. If it's machine control thing, often C is better. I have a personal prejudice I'm trying hard to mask, in favor of C language implementations, you should know that while you read this. Notice your client is going to matter vary much here. As an example, if you tell a stockbroker that you've saved him a huge amount of money at an added .0000001% risk, that stockbroker will fire you, because they don't care about money, they want to have it work, and they don't want to hear about details. Save him *time*, however, and you can count on a huge bonus! ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@picnic.mat.net | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run picnic (FreeBSD-current) (301) 220-2114 | and jaunt (Solaris7). ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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