From: "Paul Taylor" Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory Subject: Constraints in RDBMS (was: Re: MySql vs. Oracle) Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 13:57:00 -0000 Organization: Customer of Energis Squared Lines: 37 Message-ID: <8tug12$lnn$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk> References: <8sl70i02bik@news2.newsguy.com> <39F42996.6B425A5F@REMOVEcapgemini.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: modem-51.erchamion.dialup.pol.co.uk X-Trace: newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk 973259618 22263 62.136.195.51 (3 Nov 2000 13:53:38 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Nov 2000 13:53:38 GMT X-Complaints-To: abuse@theplanet.net X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 "Kristian Damm Jensen" wrote in message news:39F42996.6B425A5F@REMOVEcapgemini.dk... > Let *me* be the one to decide that. If that truly is their philosophy, > all the more reason to critize them. Views, transactions, subqueries and > triggers are to me all essential parts of a good DBMS; mine to use, if I > consider it prudent. Of course that requires me to know the price I may > have to pay when using them - that's part of the deal. As someone who's used databases both relational and (very) otherwise, I was _AMAZED_ to discover that MySQL purports to be an RDBMS but doesn't have transaction support etc. Why keep a database system and manage such things yourself? That's a return to the dark ages - might as well code it all in C and flatfiles... apart from which, MySQL may manage data in tables but if that were the only criterion then even xBASE would qualify as fully relational. > (Okay, so triggers are a substitute for explicit declaration of > constraints and referential integrities, but they are still the best > tool on the market.) I disagree. Triggers are pretty much the only tools the _database vendors_ have provided to do this kind of thing; they are not by any means the best or indeed the only tool on the market. I know this because I work for a company which specialises in database-independent business-rules-based systems. The approach taken is based on defining explicit constraints and behavioural rules (in SQL) to be managed by a coordinating rules engine independent of the underlying RDBMS. But hey - if Oracle Corp (and the rest) can't be bothered to do it right, that's a nice niche for someone else to fill . Paul [FX: donning nomex underwear as fast as possible...]