Reports from the MySQL Users Conference

Eh-Wire writes "OnLamp is reporting on the MySQL Users Conference that is currently underway. Among the highlights are the announcement that the code for MySQL 5.0 is now complete. Axmark and Widenius suggest that squashing bugs is the key behind the success of MySQL. Michael Tiemann from Red Hat and the OSI delivered a keynote on "Defining Open Source". He suggests that Microsoft's "shared source license" has been a complete failure at the design level."

Comments

Re:Mysql needs to Improve

[eakerin]

Data corruption has nothing to do with data integrity.

Data corruption is caused by either a software bug, or hardware problems, and it's a problem with the data as it's layed out in the database's backing file. This type of failure can happen with any RDBMS. I've personally had it happen a few times with MSSQL server. All times were easily repaired with either a re-index of the table, or a partial table restore.

Data integrity is the database ensuring that when you want to have an entry in another table for each row in a table, that you do.

Re:People give MySQL too much crap...

[Anonymous Coward]

When the number of items on the "gotchas" list for MySQL (http://sql-info.de/mysql/gotchas.html) is less than or equal to the same list for PostgreSQL (http://sql-info.de/postgresql/postgres-gotchas.ht ml) I'll consider using MySQL.

Re:Mysql needs to Improve

[TexVex]

Data integrity is the database ensuring that when you want to have an entry in another table for each row in a table, that you do.

That's referential integrity. For example, if your database enforces referential integrity between an accounts payable and a payable entities table, if you delete a payable entity then all associated payables records would be cascade-deleted along with it.

And, as an aside, generally if you're going to maintain a record-for-record relationship between two tables, you might as well combine them into a single table.

Data integrity is making sure your data is complete and accurate. The database can assist with this by the enforcement of rules when entering, deleting, and updating information. Extending the above example, you might preserve data integrity by disallowing deletion of a record from the payable entities table when there is a non-zero balance on that account or there has been activity on that account in the past three years.

Re:People give MySQL too much crap...

[snorklewacker]

Dude, MySQL doesn't support foreign keys. At all. Though it's good at ignoring them. It doesn't even have VIEWS, mmkay?

There's reasons for the hate, and a lot of it has to do with MySQL AB flogging their mediocre system as the sine qua non of OSS databases, to the point of openly disparaging things like transactions at the time when MySQL didn't support those.

And you thought using a hex editor was acceptable. Wow.