Re: [HACKERS] Most Advanced

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Until InterBase is released open source, it remains to be seen how
> > advanced of an open source database it will be.

> Is Interbase any good? I never heard of them much. Sounds like it is a
> PC database like dbase, right? They don't scale very well.

Well, rummaging around the interbase.com website, I found an
introductory whitepaper that lists their features. Check
http://www.interbase.com/downloads/what_is_ib.pdf for more info.

It seems to be an interesting system. To summarize its features (going
quickly against the PDF referenced above):
Client-server architecture;
SQL parser in server;
Server side triggers;
Stored Procedures;
User-defined functions;
Event alerters (that notify clients of database changes);
Declarative Referential Integrity with cascading operations;
Domains and contstraints extend SQL types;
Automatic two-phase commit to stabilize distributed mulit-database
transactions;
Cross-platform scalability and interoperability;
Small footprint (3MB disk for minimum, ~20MB for full install)
Up to 150 concurrent clients;
Y2K correct;
Implements entry level SQL-92, plus many intermediate level features and
selected features from the full level;
InterBase Corp has voting member status in the ANSI SQL standards
committee, X3H2;
SQL Roles for group-level security;
SQL-92 syntax for inner and outer JOIN clauses;
Views on tables and joins;
Select procedures (that return not a value, but a result set);
Full transactional operation;
MultiGenerational Architecture (basically the same as our MVCC);
Row-level locking;
Multiple concurrent transactions on a per-client basis -- each client
can have multiple concurrent transactions;
Distributed transactions -- a single transaction can be open against
multiple databases, with a two-phase commit;
BLOBs;
Arrays (implemented as structured BLOBs);
BLOB filter functions (such as a JPEG to PNG translator);
Cost-analysis query optimization;
On Unix systems, the InterBase security can be integrated with OS
security;
Internationalization support, including UNICODE;
Integration with Borland JBuilder;
ODBC client;
Automatic garbage collection -- no vacuum;
No preallocation of disk space required -- files up to 4GB in size, with
expansion through the use of secondary files (similar to our
segmentation);
Full ACID compliance.

That's the short version.

I don't see stuff like:
Ability to use Tcl and Perl in stored procedural functions;
Object Relational in nature;
Endlessly extensible for types, languages, functions, etc. (I
especially like that one).

And other features of PostgreSQL that we know and love. Nor do I see as
many supported architectures.

--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11