Why Some Devs Can't Wait For NoSQL To Die

theodp writes "Ted Dziuba can't wait for NoSQL to die. Developing your app for Google-sized scale, says Dziuba, is a waste of your time. Not to mention there is no way you will get it right. The sooner your company admits this, the sooner you can get down to some real work. If real businesses like Walmart can track all of their data in SQL databases that scale just fine, Dziuba argues, surely your company can, too."

Comments

Article summary

[BadAnalogyGuy]

People who don't like SQL should get their heads out of their asses and use MySQL, a robust and enterprise-ready database.

Interesting thesis...

Re:Article summary

[digitalunity]

My experience has made me believe PostgreSQL is better in every respect. It's more stable, has more features and is easier to use. The article wasn't specifically pro-MySQL.

The article is largely correct. The movement to ditch SQL databases is really naive. SQL scales just fine, if you know how to use it right. Look at Oracle solutions. All their fancy eBusiness software is still Oracle SQL DB backed and some of the biggest companies in the world are using it.

SQL isn't the problem, it's a tool. Bad programmers are the problem.

Re:Article summary

[c-reus]

Oracle database license prices scale very well, too.

Re:Article summary

[squiggleslash]

There's a fairly obvious reason for NoSQL vs Pro-SQL, and it's this: SQL is absolutely the worst database query language ever invented... apart from all the others.

Virtually no-one who's spent any time analyzing and working with large amounts of data has a good word to say about SQL. It was designed from the start as a language that would be integrated into others, and yet simple real world realities make that impossible, with 99% of implementations being of the "Build a large string, and pass that string to "the SQL connector" to be parsed and interpreted" form. Its handling of null and the empty string is incomprehensible and useless, in part because nobody involved ever had the cajones to do what needed to be done with both. There is no standardized set of data types in the real world. Simple issues with unstandardized case dependencies can make an application that works with Oracle and only uses standard "select" statements not work under, say, PostgreSQL. And these are the surface level technical issues: talk to any relational database guru and they'll come up with numerous philosophical issues too.

To this you add another component that's always an issue: the entirely haphazard way in which relational databases are implemented on most operating systems, whereby the DBMS is another application, that manages its own files, and needs to be coached with kind words and a happy smile in order to get anything done. Does your app use a database for something back-endy, like, for example, MythTV does for its settings and lists of channels and TV programs? Well, either forget it, or be prepared to put your users through hell as they have to ensure that the entirely separate DBMS is installed and that usernames and passwords are set up for your application's use.

And so, naturally, people hate them. With a passion. To the point that anyone sane is going to put it low on the list for any application, even when it's entirely appropriate. Of course your multiuser databases in your enterprise environment should be stored using an enterprise grade RDBMS, and as nobody's come up with anything better, you should be talking to it using SQL.

...and you should be talking to it carefully. Ideally, those writing the application core should be handing over the database access to someone who can abstract each query properly. Because SQL sucks. It just sucks less than anything else designed to do the same thing.

Re:Article summary

[seanadams.com]

Does your app use a database for something back-endy, like, for example, MythTV does for its settings and lists of channels and TV programs? Well, either forget it, or be prepared to put your users through hell as they have to ensure that the entirely separate DBMS is installed and that usernames and passwords are set up for your application's use.

sqlite is underrated and would be ideal for many such applications.

Re:Article summary

[mcrbids]

Virtually no-one who's spent any time analyzing and working with large amounts of data has a good word to say about SQL.

I've spent 10 years developing intensively relational applications with SQL. I love it!

It was designed from the start as a language that would be integrated into others, and yet simple real world realities make that impossible, with 99% of implementations being of the "Build a large string, and pass that string to "the SQL connector" to be parsed and interpreted" form.

So... because people don't bother to to learn about things like prepared statements, the tool is bad? It's like saying that cars suck because they don't have cruise control!

Its handling of null and the empty string is incomprehensible and useless, in part because nobody involved ever had the cajones to do what needed to be done with both.

OK, so enlighten us with your brilliance! Share with us the ultimate answer of what should be done to differentiate a null (logically, "I don't know") with a blank string (logically, "We know there's nothing there") and what should be done differently?

IMHO, the concept of "null" is a very useful one which allows a developer to differentiate between a blank answer and a no answer.

There is no standardized set of data types in the real world. Simple issues with unstandardized case dependencies can make an application that works with Oracle and only uses standard "select" statements not work under, say, PostgreSQL.

Woah, hold on there boy! You mean to say that features specific to one database engine won't work with another? Well spank my uncle and grease my kittens - this is amazing! Unless, of course, you stick to ANSI 92 syntax, which is pretty much 100% compatible. Yes, there's some regression testing you'll have to do against the different databases. Just like you have to do with HTML, XML, or any other standards-based language.

(yawn)

And these are the surface level technical issues: talk to any relational database guru and they'll come up with numerous philosophical issues too.

Strange how you didn't manage to name even one?

But here's the part of this whole "NoSQL vs SQL" debate - SQL is an interface API to a DBMS, it's not the database itself! You can use any number of technologies "under the hood" including those
types of technologies commonly referred to as "NoSQL" and put an SQL interface in front! The whole idea that SQL is somehow the problem is just.... idiotic and betrays an astonishing lack of understanding by the programmer(s) involved.

It's like saying that you should have a stick-shift car because automatic transmissions don't go as fast. It's just moronic. Arguing about NoSQL is like arguing with a tea party dolt about the "socialist" health car plan that just passed! (that was first drafted by the "right wingers" 15 years ago)

It's argument from stupidity.

Re:Article summary

[ppanon]

It's not heresy. However, I have seen a lot of crap data models produced by developers (even worse than what I come up with as GUI designs). I have also seen developers produce SQL that looked OK at first glance but performed abysmally under certain conditions (and have even saved the odd project by finding those and fixing them when the system started dying under load). If you access a SQL database like you would a set of flat files, it is never going to give you the performance that a flat file access will give you for raw throughput because you've got all the extra communications latency. However if you re-write your search and extract queries to pull your data in a single SQL statement instead of a statement for each of your N tables involved in the result, then SQL is going to kick ass as soon as you start getting enough data and users placing enough queries that all the indexes and caching can pay off.

Flat files will work better for certain types of unstructured data, but most people who get crap performance out of SQL databases just don't understand how to use SQL databases properly. Which is why those True Believers tend to get upset about crap SQL implementations: because those tend to bog down a SQL server and slow down all the well-written apps too.

No, the real problem with most SQL DBAs is that they haven't adapted to agile methodologies. They still want the data model to be spring fully armored from Zeus' head according to classic waterfall planning. What they need to do is to get some data modelling tools that support round trip engineering so that they can make changes as the developer needs them and have upgrade scripts checked into source control along with the code on new builds. Right now there's only a few tools like ErWin and Data Architect that support that kind of development, and they tend to be ridiculously expensive. The one exception is DeZign for Databases Professional which is comparatively cheap. A lot of companies will lay out a lot of cash for developer tools but won't fork over the dough necessary for their data modelers/DBAs to properly support developer activity. So yeah, the DBAs tend to be a little reticent to do all that work by hand. While there are some developers who still use notepad or gedit by choice, nobody seems to expect them to do it, or to have the same productivity as someone with a decent tool chain.

The Actual Quote is

[Daengbo]

"MySQL or PostgreSQL," for what it's worth. PostgreSQL is a pretty powerful database, and you should have to make a pretty good argument why leaving a well understood technology that powers a lot (an some of the largest parts) of the WWWeb needs to be trashed for something newer and less tested.

I can't wait for databases to die

[Anonymous Coward]

XML text files all the way! /duck

Hardware is cheap. Developers aren't.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really that simple. A standard dual socket server with the latest CPU's from Intel or AMD can handle hundreds of requests per second; if one isn't enough, just add more hardware, one month of salary can buy you another node, a year can buy you a whole cluster of rackable systems or a chassis full of blades. If it takes a few months extra for a team to solve the problem the NoSQL way, that's a few months of extra salary costs and missed sales.

Slashdot runs on SQL. I run a site of 1M pages daily (1/3-slashdot according to Alexa) with just a single system with 2x Xeon E5420, Django/PostgreSQL at 10% load. Unless you attract enough attention to require scaling past 10M pages a day, you're wasting your time reinventing the wheel with NoSQL, just stick with a standard ORM, launch your site and start convincing customers and generate sales. You can survive a slashdotting just fine without spending so much time on those exotic tools.

...because "there can be only one!"

[Joce640k]

The whole of geek debating is based on the Highlander principle.