SAP-DB - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Don Baccus
Subject SAP-DB
Date
Msg-id 3.0.1.32.20010428212847.0156fd70@mail.pacifier.com
Whole thread Raw
Responses Re: SAP-DB  ("Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net>)
Re: SAP-DB  (Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>)
List pgsql-hackers
Hi guys,
   > 
   > I've used the open source SAPDB and the performance is pretty
damned
   > impressive. However, 'open source' in application to it is
somewhat
   > deceptive, since you have to make it with SAP's proprietary build
   > tools/environment.
   > 
   > In my opinion, however, it would be worth closely auditing SAP DB
to see
   > what postgres can learn.

   I downloaded it.  The directories are two characters in length, the
   files are numbers, and it is a mixture of C++, Python, and Pascal. 
Need
   I say more.  :-)



I swore I'd never post to the hackers list again, but this is an 
amazing

statement by Bruce.


Boy, the robustness of the software is determined by the number of
characters

in the directory name? 


By the languages used?


Have you considered that the development tools may

be abstracting out the directory names in their development 
environment?



Someone else dissed this release because you need their development
tools.


Well, guess what big boys, the development tools are being released 
open

source, too.  And SAP has a history of giving you sources (not fiche or

whatever) of their licensed technology so this is a fairly easy step 
for

them.  


Not by the fact that SAP is a monster company, with a monster customer
base,

with a DB engine hardly used over here but actually quite popular in
Germany?


Quite popular in exactly the kind of enterprise environments that PG has
yet

to crack and, if you dismiss this offering with silly hand-waving, may
never

crack?


Have you ever heard of Adabas?


If you don't believe that SAP and SAP-DB are real, go talk to your
fellow

Great Bridge employee Jan Wieck.


OK, I'll unsubscribe now ... <italic>I'm </italic>still a fan of PG, but
not stupid enough to 

dismiss a robust, industrial-strength RDMBS system based on naive and

uneducated criticism.


PG has a lot to offer, and the upscale is still amazingly positive
judging

by the pace of development over the past two years.  This is hardly a
basis

for hand-waving SAP DB into MySQL-land, however.  I like PG, I will
continue

to personally use PG, and I will support SAP DB along with Oracle and PG
with

OpenACS 4.x.


And I would expect most of my clients using that toolkit to use Oracle,

with SAP DB coming in second, and PG third ...


I'm not trying to demotivate or discourage the PG crowd.  However, when
you're

in a competitive battle the best prescription for getting your bell run
is to

taunt and tease competitors who actually are in better shape than you.


And ... SAP DB is, in many ways important to the enterprise
organization.


They may have an inferior page-locking concurrency scheme, I need to
check on

this, but in many enterprise-level commercial environments this isn't
such a big deal.

Since your (Bruce's) hopes for a wealthy future depends on GB IPO'ing
which

will only come with significant penetration of the enterprise commercial
environment,

I humbly suggest you don't write them off quite so quickly.


SAP is, after all, a very successful company.








- Don Baccus, Portland OR <<dhogaza@pacifier.com>
 Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
 Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
 http://donb.photo.net.


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