Re: SAP and MySQL to cooperate (?!)

>
> Hi,
>
> On Sat, 24 May 2003, Jean-Michel POURE wrote:
>
> > Le Vendredi 23 Mai 2003 18:11, Ian Barwick a =E9crit :
> > > Heise [*] is reporting that SAP and MySQL are forming a partnership
> > > with the aim of creating a database server product based on
> > > MySQL and SAP-DB. The report indicates MySQL will do the development
> > > over a period of several years.
> >
> > Strange idea. MySQL and SAP-DB are completely different products in desig=
> n.
> > Maybe SAP-DB is dropping development of its database and wants MySQL team=
> to
> > take care of maintaining the database for current users.
>
> I think it's all about a marketting move. I don't imagine how SAP
> DB and MySQL could be "merged", and developing a new system from scratch
> doesn't seem to be plausible. I don't expect much from this at least in
> short/mid-term (regarding software, not media hype). Anyway, in two or
> three years we may se a new database that possibly will do what PostgreSQL
> does now and have been doing for a long time.

Having attempted to compile SAP-DB code once or twice, I have to agree.

The seeming "merit" of the merger, to me, would be the notion of some people
outside SAP AG taking a look at SAP-DB code with a view to:
a) Using tools like autoconf to hook in the notion of portability, and
b) Redoing the build using Make (instead of their own peculiar tools).

Those are serious barriers to wide-spread deployment, as they make it really
inconvenient to deploy SAP-DB on any platform that SAP AG doesn't directly
build for.

But if it truly is a large-scope "modifying SAP-DB to become
MySQL-The-Next-Generation" project, it will have a hugely disruptive effect on
the states of both MySQL and SAP-DB "production" development.

The attempts to get Win32 support have been _somewhat_ disruptive for
PostgreSQL; this "MySAP-DB project" would be a multi-year one that would be
vastly more disruptive. It's more along the lines of a "we'll be integrating
in thread support plus Win32 plus syntax emulators for all of Informix, DB/2,
MySQL, and Oracle."

We should be inclined to encourage the project :-); the merits for PostgreSQL
are several:
- There's a fairly high chance of failure, with the potential to damage
reputation for both companies and both DBMSes
- The disruption would allow PostgreSQL to "look more stable." (I'm speaking
politically, not technically...)
- The disruption would scare some people off of MySQL
- If PostgreSQL development progresses steadily, in the interim, perceived
disadvantages might get more directly dealt with.
- Recent versions of MySQL are getting more disk and memory hungry than
PostgreSQL. I don't imagine SAP-DB integration is likely to _diminish_ this...
- If we see steady progress over two years, that's time for a LOT of
functionality to appear before there's much more than some flakey "betas" of
"MySAP-DB".

There should be lots of smileys throughout :-), but I'm not making completely
spurious jokes here; there is some reality to each of the points...
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