Re: Oracle and Postgresql

On Sep 15, 2008, at 2:40 PM, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> Like MySQL has built in replication.

You know, I hear this particular example about MySQL's replication
implementation a lot against any sort of new feature, and it's
important to recognize the difference here.

Replication is *not* a function of the database, it's a function of
the network/cluster. For this reason, it's entirely appropriate to
not build it into the core binary. It's entirely a different matter
when it is core database functionality being discussed. Modular
programming exists for a reason.

Similarly, it has been argued that psql -l and things like
(php)pgadmin should not show databases you cannot log in to in MySQL
style. For many users, this may not matter, but I've done shared
hosting before, and it matters a lot there - not for any good reason
so much as the fact that every client gets concerned and complains
about being able to see the existence of others' databases and vice
versa. However once logged in, you can get at this information by
querying the catalog, so that *is* security through obscurity.
However, if the catalog workaround were also addressed, perhaps with
row-level access control, this would have the same effect and *not* be
security through obscurity.

People love throwing the "security through obscurity" and "bloat"
terms around when discussing new features, but these are really more a
question about how and where the implementation is done than it is
about the feature itself.

Cheers,
--
Casey Allen Shobe
Database Architect, The Berkeley Electronic Press