On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 02:45:20PM +0100, Paul Taylor wrote:
> Ok, the original question was Postgres have an embedded mode. If it did
> then everything could be contained with the application with no scripts
> required AND no assumptions would be made about the database because the
> same database would be running, this is the ideal scenario for me - and
> I can't see any disadvantage in it.
Yes, it would make some common things easier. If this were true in
general we wouldn't have operating systems on our computers, every
program would run "on the metal" and do what it wanted to do. In
practice having a multitasking operating system is actually quite nice,
just like having a full database server is often nice. It makes some
things more complicated, and others easier.
> If instead you have to run a database standalone, then you do hit
> configurations problems, not only platform specific issues but also
> people bloody mindness about creating databases with different names and
> database users : whatever the documentation says which has to be
> accounted for in tests. To pretend there are no issues with setting up a
> database is unrealistic.
No, I'm not trying to say that. I'm just trying to explain the position
that PG comes from.
> Alternatively , use an embedded database of a different type but then
> the syntax would be different plus many other parts of the database
> which may/may not be relevant.
>
> So neither solution is great, for more complex applications would have
> to go with standalone database, but for simpler database interactions
> the second option is viable.
Yup, but then you've got to support multiple database backends which can
get tricky and both still really need to be tested. If both were PG
then this would simplify your end, but the development of PG would be
complicated a lot.
I think I'm saying that, yes, it's going to be more of a fiddle that PG
doesn't have an embedded mode, but unfortunately that's the way things
are. We can try and suggest ways to make writing your tests easier, but
I'm not sure what else we can do.
--
Sam http://samason.me.uk/
