[Discuss] Are SQL/NoSQL databases dead?

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

We had a lot of discussions when I was on the committee (years ago)
about specific data types, such as dates. The IBM guy pushed very hard
for storage to be generic. Part of it was also political. We did not
want to trample on the language side of things. Dates were just one of
these. And that reminds me I need to install DB2 this month.

On 01/09/2014 01:49 PM, John Abreau wrote:
> My biggest issue with SQL is the lack of standardization for date
> arithmetic. I've found over the years that date arithmetic was
> essential to almost all the applications I wrote that used a database
> back-end, and this was the one sticking point that prevented me from
> completely abstracting the database layer so that the applications
> could make use of any of Postgresql, Mysql, Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft
> SQL Server, sqlite, etc.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 4:56 PM, Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org
> <mailto:gaf at blu.org>> wrote:
>
>     First, databases are a mature technology. While there are always new
>     things an features. it all comes down to wanting to store lots of data
>     securely, and be able to retrieve that data quickly and logically. I
>     once sat on the ANSI standards database committee, and I fully
>     understand some of the thinking. In ANSI, the member of the committees
>     were mostly vendor representatives where the ISO committees tend to be
>     more academics. But also working in a compiler group at Digital we
>     always had to consider backwards and binary compatibilities. So, if
>     Oracle makes a change they could affect their entire customer base. I
>     recently had an issue with some SQL code that worked fine on
>     Oracle 11G
>     Enterprise, but did not work on Oracle XE Express. If I recall it
>     was a
>     case sensitivity issue. So, once you have a product, you have to
>     consider the existing users.
>
>     On 01/08/2014 03:10 PM, Bill Horne wrote:
>     > On 1/8/2014 2:21 PM, Eric Chadbourne wrote:
>     >> I lurk one of the postgresql dev lists and they are constantly
>     making
>     >> new commits and there always seem to be new features being
>     added, most
>     >> of which I haven't even started playing with.  But I think I
>     hear what
>     >> you're saying.  It's an older technology that's been pretty well
>     >> explored and polished.  Probably not much low hanging fruit.
>     >>
>     >> I haven't played with the NoSQL stuff yet.  Probably because I find
>     >> sql and it's super sets to be quite useful.  One of you posted
>     this a
>     >> while back.  Still cracks me up.
>     >>
>     >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs
>     >
>     > Or, try this abso-f2(*&$ng-lutely incredible commentary on one
>     of the
>     > currently-fashionable
>     > methodologies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvks70PD0Rs
>     >
>     > or languages (and it's true that php developers never get
>     groupies) ...
>     >
>     > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sygm9x9sBEo
>     >
>     > or trying to figure out the motives, background, IQ, or batshite
>     > attitudes of OMG I WAS THERE! I KNOW THAT GUY! I KNOW A HUNDRED OF
>     > THOSE GUYS!!! THEY WORK AT MOTHER BELL!!!!
>     >
>     > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OstpOap9KU&list=PL1FB3417C560AC0B7
>     > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OstpOap9KU&list=PL1FB3417C560AC0B7>
>     > (and, yes, I almost soiled myself several times when listening
>     to this).
>     >
>     > Bill, who is going back to the Scary Devil Monastery ...
>     >
>     > P.S. (With apologies to a certain BLU member who uses that
>     method ...)
>     >
>     >
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 9:25 AM,<markw at mohawksoft.com
>     <mailto:markw at mohawksoft.com>>  wrote:
>     >>> 'm not saying they are "dead" as in no one is using them, I'm more
>     >>> thinking they are dead with regard to feature development.
>     >>>
>     >>> PostgreSQL and MySQL and the commercial databases just seem less
>     >>> "important" these days with things like MongoDB and Cassandra.
>     Don't
>     >>> get
>     >>> me wrong, I think the NoSQL crowd are fairly delusional because
>     >>> eventually
>     >>> these NoSQL databases will all have SQL front ends and ACID
>     >>> characteristics are vital to any real database. (but I digress)
>     >>>
>     >>> Traditional ACID SQL databases have more or less peaked. Data
>     stores
>     >>> like
>     >>> the NoSQL ilk are pretty much done feature wise as well.
>     Stonebreaker's
>     >>> next project is getting very little traction.
>     >>>
>     >>> Have databases become just another "word processor" like
>     application
>     >>> where
>     >>> almost all the standard offerings are really good enough?   I
>     mean,
>     >>> jeez,
>     >>> tomcat, apache, php, etc. are all jus good enough and there
>     are no new
>     >>> "must have" features as well.
>     >>>
>     >>> I guess the real question is what's left or are infrastructure
>     >>> components
>     >>> pretty much done?
>     >>>
>     >>> _______________________________________________
>     >>> Discuss mailing list
>     >>> Discuss at blu.org <mailto:Discuss at blu.org>
>     >>> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>     >>
>     >>
>     >
>     >
>
>
>     --
>     Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org <mailto:gaf at blu.org>>
>     Boston Linux and Unix
>     PGP key id:3BC1EB90
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>     EB90
>
>
>
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>
> -- 
> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
> Email jabr at blu.org <mailto:jabr at blu.org> / WWW http://www.abreau.net /
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-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90 
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66  C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90