Re: PostgreSQL Advocacy, Thoughts and Comments

"Jason Tesser" <JTesser(at)nbbc(dot)edu> wrote:
> I completely disagree. I do a lot of programming with PHP and the
features
> of Postgres come in handy. Let me give you an example of just some
> basic things. Triggers! Why should I have to write insert and update
> triggers in the logic (PHP) if I can handle it at the database level. Sql
> is 10x as fast as the language. Better to handle what you can at the
database
> level. Same with views and stored procedures. MySQL cannot even handle
> sub-queries yet. I also use Python for standalone interfaces to the data.
> Why should I not be able to use the same views and triggers etc in there
> that I use for my web apps. PHP is quite powerful if used correctly.

I guess I am coming at this from the other direction: MySQL is popular and
many people use it for lightweight stuff. Partly this may be because better
tools exist for providing hosted solutions, and this is an area we could
improve (automatically adding entries to the pg_hba.conf, etc.-- may have to
look into doing this).

THe real problem I see is that this keeps PHP from being an ideal skill for
developing enterprise applications. The features you are mentioning are
extremely helpful, even necessary, when you have many applications working
against the same database. The triggers, etc. can give you some consistant
business logic, and you can use views to present information to the
applications in a way that is natural for them.

In essence, my point is that for single-use databases, MySQL isn't all that
bad (aside from consistancy issues). However, the popularity of the LAMP
development environment holds PHP back from being a serious corporate
development environment, IMO.

> Java has its own issues and I am not sure it is as far supiour as you
> are claming it is. But that is not for this dscussion. MySQL may be more
> popular with (cheap) web hosting places but that doesn't mean it is the
best
> or that Postgres wouldn't serve better even in this area. I am glad
> to see the article written for PHP mag as Postgres would help alot of PHP
> guys that are using MySQL.

Again, I think that the most important benefit would be lowering the barrier
to entry of serious development. You can start with
Linux/Apache/PostgreSQL/PHP for a simple site, and then use your knowledge
better to develop more serious applications. But the critical issue to
resolve is to make available a tool or set of tools to manage shared hosting
environments in an easier way. I would be happy to try to generate such a
set of tools.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers