PostgreSQL front ends (was Re: [HACKERS] Parallel regress tests (was Re: FOREIGN KEY andshift/reduce))

[cc: list trimmed, and subject changed....]

On Wed, 08 Dec 1999, Don Baccus wrote:
> At 04:57 AM 12/9/99 +0100, Jan Wieck wrote:
>
> > I know, that there are similar powerful languages availabel
> > (perl for one). It's just that I looked for a good scripting
> > language some years ago and found Tcl (version 7.4 at that
> > time). Today it is such a magic tool for someone, familiar
> > with the C language, that I think it was one of the best
> > coices I ever made.
>
> And this is the scripting language embedded in the NaviSoft, later
> AOLserver web server. Your comments pretty much sum things up.

I replied to Jan privately about that, but, since you brought it up on-list....

> This is in some sense the wrong forum to mention such things, but in
> another sense it is the right forum, because mainstream database server
> companies are pouring everything they've got into "web-ifying" their
> tools.

Vince almost finished the switch, but got tangled up in the high latency of the
AOLserver developers for 3.0beta3. His comments about the ease of setup were
on the money, but he wanted to use CGI, and CGI is far from AOLserver's strong
suite. The tcl API is the preferred way to do AOLserver hacking.

> symptom of PotgreSQL's stability in 6.5.* is that the bugs are of the
> reproducible, mostly language-oriented kind and because of this they're
> easy to isolate and work-around (not always the truth in a multi-threaded
> environment such as typifies AOLserver).

As opposed to PostgreSQL 6.2.1, the first version that was officially supported
by the AOLserver crew. PostgreSQL has come a long way!

> PostgreSQL, though, has the potential to be an ideal web db server for
> small-to-mid-range sites.

The use of AOLserver+Tcl+PostgreSQL has the potential to far surpass the speed
of Apache+mod_perl+mySQL -- or Apache+mod_php+mySQL.

To quote Philip Greenspun, AOLserver is now handling 28 thousand hits at AOL.
Oh, that's 28K hits _per_second_ aggregate over AOL's server farm.

IMO,. AOLserver is far and away the best web front end for PostgreSQL. And
that's my final answer.

--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio