Which database...

[dhml at comcast.net (David Hummel)]

On Thu, Jun 16, 2005 at 09:30:49AM -0400, markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
> 
> MySQL is a joke, don't even consider it.

I concur with other posters that this is not a fair statement.  MySQL
definitely has its uses and is a simple, fast, and easy-to-use DB for
many applications.

> It doesn't support enough "SQL" to write efficient queries.

If you're referring to subqueries, 4.1 has them (they will not
necessarily make a query more efficient though).

> The speed claims come from simple "selects"

Perhaps, but so are some benchmarks for other DBs.  The fact is MySQL
outperforms (or at least matches the performance of) other DBs, albeit
for mostly read-only applications.

> and don't describe its misserable performance on database
> modifications.

I wouldn't say miserable.  Comparable to PostgreSQL actually.

> It scales very poorly if you actually modify the database.

It scales somewhat poorly period.  But ask yourself, how big is your DB,
and how big will it ever be?

It all depends on what you want to do with the database, and the
requirements of your application.  Many are under the impression that
they need a more sophisticated database, when in fact MySQL is more than
adequate, and probably faster.

-David