Re: [HACKERS] What can we learn from MySQL?

I've been sort-of reading this thread off and on, so this may
contain duplicate suggestions.

I was researching an article I wrote about a comparison between
Postgres and MySQL recently (If you want, you can read the article
at http://www.devx.com/dbzone/Article/20743/). I noticed some clear
differences between the mysql.com website and the Postgres website.

1) Since MySQL AB supports and trains for MySQL, there's loads of
training information available on their website. On the other
hand, I had a hard time finding training information for Postgres
in general. Same goes for support. It's easier to find, but it's
still somewhat convoluted, IMO.

2) There doesn't seem to be a clear roadmap on Postgres features.
When certian things are expected. There's the TODO list that
Bruce maintains, but it only outlines 'near' fixes. MySQL has a
nice listing of what to expect in certian future versions. I know
it's not a perfect list, but it'd be nice to know when full blown
replication will be included in PostgreSQL as an example.
On those same lines, there doesn't seem to be anything about the
improvements in the minor versions. It seems that in every
release (i.e. 7.2,7.3,7.4) there are pretty significant changes,
but finding a place that outlines these changes is somewhat
difficult.
While being somewhat nit-picky on this, it'd also be helpful if
someone wasn't completely database literate could understand some
of the changes. Who needs transactions, anyways? :)

3) There's the issues of 'advanced database features' in general.
Many MySQL applications perform much of their logic in the
application level, instead of the database level. They do this
because there aren't things like triggers or stored procedures
in MySQL. As the saying goes, 'if mohammad won't go to the
mountain, bring the mountian to mohammad'. Why not do some
simple explainations as to why these things are good, and what
they do, and how to use them in real context?

4) As other peole have noted, there's no windows build readily
available for Postgres. There may be, but it's difficult to
find. If someone's used to running, say, Oracle, and all they
have is a windows machine to test something out on, MySQL has
compiled binaries ready to go.

5) I believe that this was noted as well somewhere along the line -
the other tools, like pgadmin III aren't readily available
either. They're excellent tools, and they should be quick to
find on the postgres website.

6) Bug tracking. I haven't really looked into how MySQL handles
this, but when learning about Postgres, I discovered that the
whole development model seemed kind of 'closed', and people on
the mailing lists would find bugs repeatedly. Something like
Bugzilla would be very helpful in this respect. I've been kind
of out of the loop for the past 6 months in this area, so it may
have changed since then.

7) The two Postgres books are available online for anyone to read
and download. They're there, but, to me, you have to notice them
on the sidebar to go to them. They're extremely helpful, and
they should be pointed out more.

Most of these suggestions aren't really anything to do with the
database itself. It's simply a re-organization of some of the
information that's already available. As others have mentioned,
'it's about the PR'.

Just my $.02 worth.

Tim