use Perl

• Wow, the venom! (Score:2)

  by Dom2 (2981)

  Your experiences I find astonishing. As a PostgreSQL user going back some 5 years, and recently asked to port my company's application to MySQL, I find MySQL to be unbelievably opaque. Funnily, I could mirror your complaints almost exactly:

  • Why is MySQL so hard to set up? Admittedly, I'm compiling from source in our environment, but PostgreSQL just compiles and installs. MySQL takes 3 times as long to compile, and installs a load of crap like tests that I'm not interested in, even when using the clie
  • Re:Wow, the venom! (Score:2)

    by TeeJay (2309)

    MySQL is WAY easier to install - configure, make, make install - no creating and su'ing to a special user to create the databases.
    
    "Why is the command line interface so appalingly bad? The help is non-existent on every instance I've connected to. psql at least gives you \h."
    
    myql allows you to switch, and show databases, list and describe tables and best of all quit is quit and help is help. Table names and fields are tab completed. Postgresql is grumpy and unhelpful compared. The source command allows you to

    --
    
    @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
    print reverse @JAPH;
    • Re:Wow, the venom! (Score:2)

      by Dom2 (2981) <{dom} {at} {happygiraffe.net}> on 2006.03.02 15:37 (#46414) Homepage Journal

      "myql allows you to switch, and show databases, list and describe tables and best of all quit is quit and help is help."

      Just like psql, apart from quit/help.

      "Table names and fields are tab completed."

      Maybe in your version. For me, psql completes, mysql doesn't. And it gets ^W wrong to add insult to injury.

      "The source command allows you to run sql scripts without exiting and piping."

      In psql it's spelled \i. Try \? for some help on the psql commands.

      "The SQL Prompt is far easier and more powerful than psql."

      No, they're pretty similar, but you're more used to one than the other.

      "It's not confusing - it's common sense, logging into 1 database to create another database or using command line scripts is confusing"

      You're missing the point here. It's confusing because it's not what you're used to. I find MySQL confusing for exactly the same reason.

      As regards the manuals, I would like to point out this example: TIMESTAMP Properties as of MySQL 4.1 [mysql.com]. It's laughable -- why is the 5.0 manual concerned with 4.1? And why are the properties so baroque anyway?

      I agree -- the PostgreSQL manuals do have sparser examples. But that wasn't your original claim. Personally, I find them sufficient.

      I'm sorry that you didn't manage to compile the packages. So how do you know that they are inferior? I'm curious to know...

      As to pg_dump, that works fine between versions. I believe that the recommendation is to use the newest available version of pg_dump. What problems did you have?

      As to full text search not being built in; well it's in contrib, which is easily installed if you're using a package. It's a shame it's not installed by default though.

      I personally dislike Slony as well. OTOH, I've rarely needed replication, so I don't have enough experience of that. Again, it would be nice to get something easy to use installed by default.

      "Arcane and unpolished" I find particularly amusing, because that describes my impressions of MySQL almost perfectly! Doubtless I will get used to it over time, but being introduced to it for the first time is really jarring.

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      • Re:Wow, the venom! (Score:2)

        by vek (2312)

        he last time I looked at PostgreSQL, I liked what I saw but the lack of reliable out-of-the-box replication was a showstopper. I was quite surprised that PostgreSQL was lagging behind MySQL & Oracle in that area. PostgreSQL for me therefore is fine for simple apps on a single database host, but once you move into something a little more advanced with multiple redundant database hosts sitting behind a load balancer, replication is a must have feature.
        
        I just had a quick peek at the online documentation
      • Re:Wow, the venom! (Score:2)

        by TeeJay (2309)

        I have used pgAdmin on other people's machines, it's slower, ugly and contains less features than the equivilent tools for Oracle (Toad/Tora), MySQL (mysql-query-browser, mysq-admin) and SQL Server. PGaccess runs but lacks most of the features I'd want.
        
        Trying Squirrel, I found that it can't find the jdbc classes for anything and is slow, ugly and clunky - but thats Java's fault rather than Postgres :)

        --
        
        @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
        print reverse @JAPH;