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MySQL vs. Postgres

Published September 22, 2004
I've always loved MySQL. It's fast, simple, free and there are plenty of resources on the web covering every topic. But there is much more to databases then MySQL. A client of mine asked me to do a job using Postgres to enable compatibility with existing systems. I installed Postgres pretty easily. Documentation is not as good as MySQL's but it was enough to figure out how to get up and running in minutes. The features are there. A few things that MySQL should have by now: 1) Views - I really like the concept of views. It enables abstraction of data for a specific purpose. Currently, we do this via temporary tables but we have to keep on creating and dropping them because the data is not referenced. In addition, it takes up a lot more space. 2) Foreign Keys - I do not necessarily need this because we can do this with Innodb if need be. But it would be nice to have it on standard MySQL tables just to keep it in the definition at least. 3) Constraints - MySQL shines by not having constraints because it can speed up inserts a lot. However, sometimes a little constraint never hurt anyone. Again, Innodb has this feature, so its fine. 4) Stored Procedures - These are great and can make it easy to have an sql statement like -- SELECT COUNT(*),work_week(order_date) FROM orders GROUP BY work_week(order_date) -- if you know what I mean. MySQL on the otherhand shines on user management and permissions. Much simpler system yet more powerful). It also has the marketshare. In addition, the MySQL staff are chopping away making all these features a part of MySQL. Views will not be in the system until 5.0, but that makes us appreciate them even more when they arrive. Bottom Line: I am not switching to Postgres just yet. MySQL has been proven in my production environments. With it's built-in replication support and scalibility. I am fine with it. Postgres is great, but in my world, untested. I will most probably continue to work with Postgres over the next few months and test it heavily. There is room for both Postgres and MySQL in my web firm, but MySQL still handles most (if not all) I need to do.
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posted by imran on: Nov 4, 2005 02:33pm

Hi I did like your blog postings and comments. I am in big problem since many days. Any kind of help would be appeiciated. I want some help to enter data into mysql databasefrom a flash form using coldfusion components ? i’m using web services and simply want to pass data from my flash form to my cfc while staying in flash… any actionscript (or coldfusion code ‘cfc’) that anyone could provide or even links to other ressources on this specific topic would be awesome… if someone could help me with this process i would be greatful….. thank you in advance… Imran Hashmi http://www.visionstudio.co.uk

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Ronnie Schwartz is the CTO and founder of RustyBrick, an agile web & mobile development firm that creates effective applications and focuses on finding the right balance between time to production and software quality to get clients in front of their customers quickly and effectively. Ronnie brings over twenty years of innovative design, programming and management expertise to the table.

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