Re: MySQL Lays Path for SAP Integration

ned(at)nedscape(dot)com (Ned Lilly) writes:
> Wonder how real this is?

Actually, this looks to me like the scenario that actually explains
why MySQL AB would have taken on development of SAP-DB.

It was pretty mystifying why they would bother; the code base
inherited from Software AG is pretty scary stuff, not likely to be
integrable at the code level with their own code.

Adabas-D (what it used to be called) has numerous bits of VERY useful
functionality, notably stored procedures, mature transaction support,
VIEWs, and such. Unfortunately, the code base is only just barely
supportable; the notion of grabbing the stored procedure
implementation and throwing it into MySQL is beyond imagination.

If the _actual_ point is to provide SAP AG with a way out of
supporting SAP-DB, as well as a database system that is being
maintained that can be used as a bargaining chip against Oracle, well,
THAT makes sense.

There's not ALL that much that has to be added to MySQL to make it
sufficiently powerful to support R/3. R/3 doesn't use views, nor does
it use complex subselects, nor does it use stored procedures. It
simulates those inside the application. So MySQL AB doesn't have to
improve MySQL *all* that much to make it sufficiently featureful.

And what they didn't bother mentioning is that this strategy allow
everyone involved to ultimately let the scary code (e.g. - Adabas-D)
die.

One thing I disagree with:

"For those on the fence, we recommend MySQL over MaxDB, since it
will change the least in the near term and will probably guide the
user experience of the upcoming integrated product."

In view of the painfulness of making grand changes to the SAP-DB
codebase, it is quite likely that the product that will change the
least is actually MaxDB.

Note that if "MySQL sets its sights on R/3" is the "grand road map,"
then that makes it eminently clear that 'open source' is steadily
moving downwards on the list of corporate priorities...
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