Re: Postgress and MYSQL

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On Wednesday 14 January 2004 10:18 pm, Chris Travers wrote:
> From: "Keith C. Perry" <netadmin(at)vcsn(dot)com>
>
> > 3) Not being able to "find" something in via search BEFORE even reading
>
> the
>
> > documentation is somewhat backwards. You have to at least get a feel
>
> for
>
> > the docs before even know what to look for. That is not to say that
>
> the
>
> > search engine is not problematic but it is to say that I'm am more and
>
> more
>
> > convinced that knowing how to search more important than what is being
> > searched for.
>
> Well put, and I like the other posts about the usefullness of a really good
> index. However, I think that there is an attitude that MySQL docs are
> better for beginners because the search really takes the place of the
> index. However, IMO, this masks a more subtle issue, see below.
>
> > 4) As many people pointed out before, a product should not be technical
> > education it should product education. Some people take it as being
>
> rude
>
> > we some on-list says use google or check <some other site>. Granted
> > being told "this is not hand holding" is definitely a slap in the face
>
> its
>
> > been done to me and I'm sure there is a better way to put it but the
> > reality is that PG docs are very good. Get some paper and print
> > they out double-sided- they're an excellent reference. However, you
>
> have to
>
> > understand the basics first and that simply does not belong on the PG
> > site (save a link to some community recommendations).
>
> I agree to a point, in that the PostgreSQL product documentation is product
> education, not general database education. However, the "community
> recommended links" approach has a number of difficiencies that I don't
> think have been discussed much:
>
> 1: Community maintained lists of links seems the easy way to go until
> those links become broken or change and need to be removed due to
> inaccurate content. It may be easier over the long term to maintain our
> own technical education database that we have control over.
>
> 2: You DO have a problem that PostgreSQL as a product assumes more general
> knowledge than MySQL. The docs tend to assume you know stuff, and it would
> be nice to have community maintained references on these general topics,
> perhaps on techdocs, perhaps elsewhere.
>
> 3: MySQL is a database engine which seems to make sense UNTIL you are
> technically educated. Competing with MySQL may mean being able to
> articulate why ACID complience is important, for example. Or why the
> database should abort the operation/transaction rather than truncate your
> data in a NUMERIC column.
>
> So what is the alternative? I am working on some documentation but my work
> is slowed by my laptop being in the shop. Perhaps we could have a
> technical education category in Techdocs?
>
> Best Wishes,
> Chris Travers

Basically it's a question of what product to compare postgresql with. If you
target the DB2 / Oracle / Sybase corner I don't think a lot of those admins
have a problem getting used to postgresql.
But looking around on the net and in paper publications makes it obvious that
postgresql is mostly compared to mysql - both being "open source" (well, to
some degree :-)) )
Coming from the classic DB systems around I found it much easier to use
postgresql than to use mysql - things like transactions always were a given
fact for me, so I was utterly surprised not being able to set an isolation
level in mysql.
Having the usual comparison in mind I agree with Chris that at least a link
collection to sources that educate the "average ms-access user" about basic
database concepts might prove very useful - even if people won't read it, but
at least it's much easier to point them to the right place instead of
repeating the same things over and over again.

My $0.01 <- only one cent here - need the other one for another email :-)

UC

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