Re: Is PostGreSql's Data storage mechanism "inferior"?

From: "Scott Marlowe" <scott(dot)marlowe(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: "Swaminathan Saikumar" <swami(at)giveexam(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Is PostGreSql's Data storage mechanism "inferior"?
Date: 2008-01-31 00:56:53
Message-ID: dcc563d10801301656s3fe499d7k555b9ab8f945b72f@mail.gmail.com
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On Jan 30, 2008 5:11 PM, Swaminathan Saikumar <swami(at)giveexam(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to PostGreSql.
>
> http://searchyourwebhost.com/web-hosting/articles/insight-database-hosting-using-sql

I just skimmed through that page and honestly, it's wrong on LOTS of
counts, again and again. For instance, about mysql it has these two
contradicting points:
QUOTE:
Pros:
Availability of Superior Data Storage mechanism: Though prior versions
of MySql supported ISAM/MyISAM mechanisms, later versions starting
from 4.x have started using the InnoDB mechanism, which is considered
to be transaction safe for database hosting.

Cons:
Presence of Inferior Data Integrity mechanism: Though MySql is ACID
(Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, Durable) complaint, when dealing with
deadlocks in database hosting, it uses row-level locking which is
considered to be inferior when compared to Multi Version Concurrency
Control (MVCC).
UNQUOTE:

OK, while I hardly consider InnoDB to be superior to PostgreSQL's
storage engine, it uses MVCC for its locking mechanism! But, MySQL
really isn't capable of true ACID compliance because it as a whole
doesn't support check constraints, but it accepts the syntax without
actually implementing the feature.

I read one, and it seems like many of the entries don't even make
sense. This one for MSSQL for instance:

QUOTE:
Pros:
Remarkable Reliability: MSSQL hosting offers high reliability by
having a data manager for reading and writing data to the database.
Even if the client machine crashes, the read and write is not
committed in the database by the data manager. The transaction logs
also help in rollbacks thus paving way to commendable reliability in
MSSql hosting.
UNQUOTE:

WHAT? What does that mean? And how does it imply superior
reliability? I can't see any of that meaning MSSQL stays up longer
than any other database.

Seriously, if I were interviewing someone for a db job, and they
pointed out that they wrote that page I would politely decline to hire
them.

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