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

From: Pablo Sanchez <pablo_at_sgi.com>
Date: 1997/11/27
Message-ID: <yutu3cyaxa1.fsf_at_mew.corp.sgi.com>#1/1

>>>>> "Johan" == Johan Andersson <jna_at_carmenta.se> writes: Johan>
Johan> In article <yut90ubc70r.fsf_at_mew.corp.sgi.com>, pablo_at_sgi.com says...
>>

>>>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Brown <pbrown_at_triplerock.Berkeley.EDU> writes:
>>

Paul> But the practical reality is 
Paul> that people don't always do 'the right thing'. This is the
Paul> 'hard lesson' Gray refers to. 

>>
>> Unfortunately what you say is true... this is why Oracle's
>> versionings works so well... they appeal to the general
>> masses who don't do things right. I guess therein lies opportunity.
>>

Johan> A reflection from a member of the 'general masses'...

:-)

Johan> Why is Oracle's versionings bad?

I didn't say it was bad, what I'm saying is that this allows for sloppy programming. When applications are done right, there's no need to do the versioning.

Johan> Being able to get the response I would have gotten
Johan> had my query been instantaneous, without needing to
Johan> fear read locks or other clients changes during the
Johan> time my query is running, is something I consider a
Johan> 'good thing'.

I understand what you're saying... look at it in the following light:

	If the total application (not just your part) was
	done well, there wouldn't be a need for the
	versioning.  Also, in that case, you could use
	Informix/Oracle/Sybase to do the work with no
	issues.  Instead, IMHO, versioning allows sloppy
	programming.  It allows weenies like me to stay in
	business because when the performance problems come,
	I know where to look.  I guess that's okay... but
	some times I like to be altruistic and educate
	folks to help themselves.  My approach must suck
	because I have a knack of making folks rabid.

Johan> With regards to row/page locks.  This all boils down

Johan> to concurrency, the finer granularity the better Johan> concurrency.

As I've mentioned before, if the application is finely tuned, then it's a non-issue.

Johan> If we had value locks we would have the potential for even better 
Johan> concurrency than today. This all comes at a price of course, but I would like 
Johan> the option to choose, not be restricted by the technical shortcomings of the 
Johan> database system.

It's not the RDBMS that has the shortcoming but rather sloppy application writers... it's been proven with the normalized application (TPC-C's) that row-level vs page-level is not an issue.

-- 
Pablo Sanchez              | Ph # (650) 933.3812          Fax # (650) 933.2821
pablo_at_sgi.com              | Pg # (800) 930.5635   -or-   pablo_p_at_pager.sgi.com
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Received on Thu Nov 27 1997 - 00:00:00 CET