Re: Informix vs. Sybase vs. Oracle vs. (gasp) MS SQL Server

From: Pablo Sanchez <pablo_at_mew.corp.sgi.com>
Date: 1997/04/15
Message-ID: <5j09ci$14g_at_mew.corp.sgi.com>#1/1

In article <3353A408.F9C85873_at_strengur.is>, Snorri Bergmann <snorri_at_strengur.is> writes:
> > Sybase 11.0.X Informix 7.22
> > ------------- -------------
> > o ~2 gig max for data cache o 1 gig max for data cache
> >
> > Drawback Informix. With a smaller data cache there's less data you
> > can cache in memory.
>
> Can't see the problem here. On 32 bit systems max memory is usually
> 2 gig so you won't be using it all for data cahce anyway.

Correct, but you typically don't have 1 gig of data structures. Realistically you end up with about 1.7-ish gig for data cache. Quite a bit more than 1 gig.... therefore I still give Sybase the advantage here.

> > o variable I/O read/writes: o based on platform, only 2/4K read/writes -
> > 2/4/8/16K although on the log there are
> > group writes
> >
> > Drawback Informix. I/O is *always* the bottleneck. Allowing 2/4K
> > only is very limiting. Oracle does it even better... allowing up
> > to 128K per I/O. Excellent for DSS and/or table scans.
>
> This is incorrect. Informix has a configurable parameter RA_PAGES that
> you can set to whatever you like. If you set it to 100 it would
> read 200K/IO for a system with 2K pages.

Really? I thought that RA_PAGES was simply how many pages to read-ahead and that they'd still be performed as 2/4K I/O's. Suto's book isn't quite clear. Can you confirm this please?

> > o command line interface: o no command line interface. You
> > isql/sqsh have to use their gui. Ick!
> >
> > Minor drawback Informix. Personally, I hate having to use their
> > GUI. It's cumbersome because it's ascii based so it's not even a
> > GUI.
> >
>
> What about dbaccess? I love it!

Ick!  :-)... this is *strictly*
preference... Sybase has a tool called "isql"
which...err... is pretty bad... but there's a PD

tool named "sqsh" which has t-shell like interface. Extremely cool! I was planning, in my spare time! :-), to rip the API out of "sqsh" and replace it with Informix API... just a matter of time... and permission from the "sqsh" author.

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Received on Tue Apr 15 1997 - 00:00:00 CEST