Re: SQL compatibility reminder: MySQL vs PostgreSQL - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Le samedi 06 mars 2010 à 11:01 -0800, Josh Berkus a écrit :
> However, "The server is free to return any value from the group"
> doesn't
> sound like the way we do things, ever.  MySQL users might be OK with
> queries which return an indeterminate answer; our users are not.
> You'll
> notice that SELECT DISTINCT ON requires you to have an ORDER BY;
> that's
> by design.
> 
> --Josh Berkus 

Dear Josh,

I unregistered the list, to avoid a flame war. 

My opinion is that PostgreSQL should accept any MySQL syntax and return
warnings. I believe that we should access even innodb syntax and turn it
immediately into PostgreSQL tables. This would allow people with no
interest in SQL to migrate from MySQL to PostgreSQL without any harm.

During my work on Drupal, I noticed that PostgreSQL was very near to
running any MySQL code. Most users with no interest in SQL try
PostgreSQL during a few minutes and then stop at the first SQL error. If
there was no errors but only warnings they would have a choice.
Presently, they don't. PHP developers don't have time to invest in
learning deep SQL.

This leads to situations where 99% of the Internet base uses MySQL, not
PostgreSQL. The situation is the same with Windows sucking 90% of OSes
in the world with bad software design.

I had a discussion with OVH, the first French provider with 500.000
clients. We discussed about the possibility for shared hosting in
PostgreSQL. He asked me whether I would buy PostgreSQL shared hosting. I
answered no, because I have dedicated servers. Then he told me I was the
only person interested in PostgreSQL.

You may discuss and discuss and say "Yeah, we are the best at
PostgreSQL". Being the best does not suffice without sufficient user
base. Okay, you can always pretend to fight at the level of DB2 or
Oracle.

At this point, I will not discuss further. The user base of MySQL is
huge and it would be so nice that many people would migrate to
PostgreSQL.

I will continue using PostgreSQL and MySQL user base will continue to
grow and one day it will be 1 PostgreSQL user for 1.000 MySQL users.

This is life. People have a deep psychological addiction to their
believes and ideas. IMHO, PostgreSQL has to be more flexible (in
psychological terms) to understand MySQL user needs and answer them,
just to give them a choice to migrate to PostgreSQL.

All your discussions are about technical things and you think I make fun
of Drupal developers. I only tried to point out psychological believes,
which we have to understand to answer their needs and grow PostgreSQL
user base.

Kind regards,
Jean-Michel