Re: Migration: Informix to PostgreSQL Case Study

Jutta wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am writing my diploma thesis on "Migrating to Open Source Databases"
> (at Technical University Berlin, Computer Science).
>
> For early review, I just finished a draft of my case study on
migrating
> a library administration system from Informix (IDS 9.2) to PostgreSQL.
>
> You can download it at http://www.osdbmigration.org/index.php/Papers
> along with other parts of the thesis, e.g. an Open Source Database
> Feature Matrix, or the second case study on migrating a data warehouse
> (the draft also features some evaluation of Bizgres, but slightly
> out-of-date).
>
> Probably this stuff may be of some use for the PostgreSQL technical
> documentation or anybody planning a migration themselves.
>
> I would very much appreciate some comments (most of all: did I get all
> the facts on PostgreSQL right) and I will be happy to answer
questions.

Very excellent paper and thank you!

One small correction: the PostgreSQL char(n) type takes n bytes, where n
is the maximum size of the string. Varchar takes m + 4 for each row,
where m is the actual string length (space delimited).

Also, it would be nice (IMO) to have more qualitative assessments: Was
the project a success? If so, what factors contributed and what didn't?
Why was the project considered in the first place?

Also, the 'intangibles':
What fears did the developers have? The administration?
What is the impression of the project by the users?

Merlin