Re: MySQL refugee interested in pgSQL - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Jesse,

> I am a MySQL guy. I am interested in pgSQL. I have learned roughly
> everything I know about databases from using MySQL, and all that that
> implies. I would like to learn about PG and about "real" relational
> database theory. Links to any type of "PGsql for MySQL vets" and/or "Real
> relational database theory for MySQL vets" documents would be appreciated.

www.dbdebunk.com
-- the content is kind of fragmentary, but it's a starting point.  Mostly I'd
go with books:
"Pratical Issues In Database Management" by Fabian Pascal;
"The Essence of Databases"
"The Relational Model" by CJ Date,
and the very hefty canonical "Introduction to Data Management Systems" by
Date.

I don't think you need to worry about hostility -- if you want to learn
PostgreSQL, we're not going to be hostile.   We reserve our ire for
unrepentant MySQL users ;-)

Anyway, the whole relational thing is a long road of learning (I picked mine
up, on the job and in books, over 10 years) without an immediate payoff which
is, I think, why so many DBA's blow it off and satisfy themselves with
groping about in the dark.  Some points to keep in mind:

1) The relational model is a theory based on a tested mathematical model;
2) The SQL standard is an imperfect implementation of the relational model;
3) existing RDBMSes are imperfect implementations of the SQL standard;
4) The standard, standards compliance, and the general level of database
theory and relational education has been steeply declining since the mid
90's, due to apathy and clever marketing my certain database vendors.

> But at the same time I am cut very deep by the animous shown towards MySQL
> and it's users on a personal level. It is as if, by entrusting data of any
> kind to a MySQL database, I am clubbing baby seals somehow.

Of course you are!  <grin>

Seriously, a little history (and keep in mind that I haven't done a survey, so
take what I say about other people's opinions with a grain of salt)

1) When MySQL was starting out, they (the development team) saw PostgreSQL as
their chief rival, and thus took every possible opportunity to slander us in
the press, their documentation, and online forums.  While the MySQL strategy
has changed and some people have apologized, some of the people who so
virulently attacked PostgreSQL a few years ago are still in leadership
positions at MySQL.

2) From *our* perspective, MySQL is a technically inferior database buoyed up
by expensive marketing, and to add insult to injury is not really an open
source project.  As such, many PostgreSQL volunteers have the exact same fear
and resentment of MySQL that Linux advocates do of Windows.   It's not really
MySQL that we hate, so much as a marketplace that is all-too-willing to
reward inferior solutions in glossy packaging.

3) Many of use also see MySQL as symtomatic of the general decline of database
technology, including the reversion to old, bad database models and the
fragmenting of standards.   People who started programming in those old, bad,
days don't want to go back to them, and fear that they will be forced to use
MySQL in the future.

--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco