Thread: Completely new and discovering PostGresSql
Hi everyone, I've been using MS Sql Server for the last 4 years on NT and I am quite fed-up with it. So I am now seriously considering a move towards LINUX and I investigate the serious DB offering and PostgreSql Seems to come as a really strong candidate. however I have some question, which I hope you will not mind answering : A. In SQl server I use a LOT of stored procedures which to me are a good way to isolate the front end from the 'business logic'. In order to use those Stored procedures one has to be able to create variables, cursors (even outside a transaction). What would be the equivalent in PostGresSql ? B. I have seen a fair amount of projects listed on the Web site, but it does not say much so my question is are there any heavy users of PG so far (by heavy I mean db with 150+ tables, 150 users, 3000 insert/update transactions a day + three times as much Selects) .... and really business-critical apps. C. Any good books on PGS ? D. MS Sql server 6.5 has some stupid limitations such as 16 tables max in a join, 16 indexes per table, 6 (I believe) levbel of cascading trigger. I couldnot see any of those limits in PGS but did I overlooked anything ? E. I am confused about the NT version of PGS. Does it exists natively or does it requires support DLLs and libraries to work. I realize this is quite a heavy set of questions and I thank you in advance for the time you'll spend answering Didier Gasser-Morlay -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Visual Communications Group or its principal operating divisions (FPG, Telegraph Colour Library, Planet Earth Pictures, Colorific!, Pix, Giraudon, Bavaria Bildagentur). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, please do not read, copy, use or disclose this communication; and please notify the sender immediately. It should be noted that any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Hi everyone, > > I've been using MS Sql Server for the last 4 years on NT and I am quite > fed-up with it. > So I am now seriously considering a move towards LINUX and I investigate > the serious DB offering and PostgreSql Seems to come as a really strong > candidate. > > however I have some question, which I hope you will not mind answering : > > A. In SQl server I use a LOT of stored procedures which to me are a good > way to isolate the front end from the 'business logic'. In order to use > those Stored procedures one has to be able to create variables, cursors > (even outside a transaction). What would be the equivalent in > PostGresSql ? I'm currently in the progress of moving a company database from Access to PostgreSQL, and am taking the same approach. PostgreSQL has the ability to create functions, using variables, it's even possible to use C-code, and if I'm not mistaken Perl, although I have only been using native SQL and PLPGSQL for my functions. > B. I have seen a fair amount of projects listed on the Web site, but it > does not say much so my question is are there any heavy users of PG so > far (by heavy I mean db with 150+ tables, 150 users, 3000 insert/update > transactions a day + three times as much Selects) .... and really > business-critical apps. For this I'd best point you to a recent discussion on this list, concerning PostgreSQL and mission-critical-applications, since alot of information about this has been discussed in that thread. > C. Any good books on PGS ? Yep, sort of anyway. There are several documents available on the ftp-sites, and an online HTML-guide. I've taken the liberty to make a print-out of the various documents (900+ pages in total) and they have been of great help to me. There is also a work-in-progress for a book to be published in early 2000, although I don't know the specifics at this point. Since I will have to check thru my archives for that. > D. MS Sql server 6.5 has some stupid limitations such as 16 tables max > in a join, 16 indexes per table, 6 (I believe) levbel of cascading > trigger. I couldnot see any of those limits in PGS but did I overlooked > anything ? I'm not familiar with some of the terms you mention, I have read about some problems with Joins though, but the View-system is a very good alternative for me. > E. I am confused about the NT version of PGS. Does it exists natively or > does it requires support DLLs and libraries to work. It is my understanding that it is possible to compile the server on NT, using a certain library, although I seriously advise against using NT for mission-critical applications. Especially since NT tends to crash when there are alot of connections. (example: NT news-server crashed and went down for nearly a week, after just 20 simultaneous connections) > I realize this is quite a heavy set of questions and I thank you in > advance for the time you'll spend answering I just hope that the time i spent answering will one day be spent answering my questions :) > Didier Gasser-Morlay Joost Roeleveld
On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Didier Gasser-Morlay wrote: > I've been using MS Sql Server for the last 4 years on NT and I am quite > fed-up with it. > So I am now seriously considering a move towards LINUX and I investigate > the serious DB offering and PostgreSql Seems to come as a really strong > candidate. Of course some might tell you that we run equally well on FreeBSD, etc. No reason to jump straight to Linux because it's the anti-MS savior. Just so you know. > A. In SQl server I use a LOT of stored procedures which to me are a good > way to isolate the front end from the 'business logic'. In order to use > those Stored procedures one has to be able to create variables, cursors > (even outside a transaction). What would be the equivalent in > PostGresSql ? Btw., it's spelled "PostgreSQL". Anyway, we have all sorts of functions and procedures as well, but they don't have the exact same functionality as "stored procedures" in other DBMS's. I recommend that you look through the archives for stored procedures, because there are _extended_ discussions taking place every so often, which might explain the details to you. > B. I have seen a fair amount of projects listed on the Web site, but it > does not say much so my question is are there any heavy users of PG so > far (by heavy I mean db with 150+ tables, 150 users, 3000 insert/update > transactions a day + three times as much Selects) .... and really > business-critical apps. There also was a thread recently whether PostgreSQL is ready for mission critical stuff. Look through that. The largest database I know of is about 60GB. There a several people having thousands of tables and thousands of transactions an hour, so you should be safe there. > C. Any good books on PGS ? One is currently being written. You can follow the progress on the web site. > D. MS Sql server 6.5 has some stupid limitations such as 16 tables max > in a join, 16 indexes per table, 6 (I believe) levbel of cascading > trigger. I couldnot see any of those limits in PGS but did I overlooked > anything ? I'm not aware of them. > E. I am confused about the NT version of PGS. Does it exists natively or > does it requires support DLLs and libraries to work. Requires Cygnus porting library. -- Peter Eisentraut Sernanders vaeg 10:115 peter_e@gmx.net 75262 Uppsala http://yi.org/peter-e/ Sweden
> B. I have seen a fair amount of projects listed on the Web site, but it > does not say much so my question is are there any heavy users of PG so > far (by heavy I mean db with 150+ tables, 150 users, 3000 insert/update > transactions a day + three times as much Selects) .... and really > business-critical apps. That is small for us. -- Bruce Momjian | http://www.op.net/~candle maillist@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000 + If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
> There is also a work-in-progress for a book to be published in early 2000, > although I don't know the specifics at this point. Since I will have to > check thru my > archives for that. Go to our web site at www.postgresql.org, and look at the FAQ & Documentation page. That is were you should start. The book is there, and the documentation is there too. -- Bruce Momjian | http://www.op.net/~candle maillist@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000 + If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
I'm in the midst of Switching form SQL Server 6.5 to PostgreSQL. After looking at the Procedural Languages in PostgreSQL and the apparent steep learning curve I opted to segment my business logic into Java Object which are very Web / Webserver freindly. I'm running with > 2GB of data and several hundred TSQL stored procedures. This allows me to easily switch to easily switch to a higher performance DB engine (like Oracle) in the future with out such a long conversion period or learning time. Java Objects can be made into .DLL's for C integration. You might want to consider the same. Darvin Zuch AutoProfile - Canda -----Original Message----- From: owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org [mailto:owner-pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org]On Behalf Of J. Roeleveld Sent: Thursday, November 25, 1999 3:46 AM To: Didier Gasser-Morlay; pgsql-list Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Completely new and discovering PostGresSql > Hi everyone, > > I've been using MS Sql Server for the last 4 years on NT and I am quite > fed-up with it. > So I am now seriously considering a move towards LINUX and I investigate > the serious DB offering and PostgreSql Seems to come as a really strong > candidate. > > however I have some question, which I hope you will not mind answering : > > A. In SQl server I use a LOT of stored procedures which to me are a good > way to isolate the front end from the 'business logic'. In order to use > those Stored procedures one has to be able to create variables, cursors > (even outside a transaction). What would be the equivalent in > PostGresSql ? I'm currently in the progress of moving a company database from Access to PostgreSQL, and am taking the same approach. PostgreSQL has the ability to create functions, using variables, it's even possible to use C-code, and if I'm not mistaken Perl, although I have only been using native SQL and PLPGSQL for my functions. > B. I have seen a fair amount of projects listed on the Web site, but it > does not say much so my question is are there any heavy users of PG so > far (by heavy I mean db with 150+ tables, 150 users, 3000 insert/update > transactions a day + three times as much Selects) .... and really > business-critical apps. For this I'd best point you to a recent discussion on this list, concerning PostgreSQL and mission-critical-applications, since alot of information about this has been discussed in that thread. > C. Any good books on PGS ? Yep, sort of anyway. There are several documents available on the ftp-sites, and an online HTML-guide. I've taken the liberty to make a print-out of the various documents (900+ pages in total) and they have been of great help to me. There is also a work-in-progress for a book to be published in early 2000, although I don't know the specifics at this point. Since I will have to check thru my archives for that. > D. MS Sql server 6.5 has some stupid limitations such as 16 tables max > in a join, 16 indexes per table, 6 (I believe) levbel of cascading > trigger. I couldnot see any of those limits in PGS but did I overlooked > anything ? I'm not familiar with some of the terms you mention, I have read about some problems with Joins though, but the View-system is a very good alternative for me. > E. I am confused about the NT version of PGS. Does it exists natively or > does it requires support DLLs and libraries to work. It is my understanding that it is possible to compile the server on NT, using a certain library, although I seriously advise against using NT for mission-critical applications. Especially since NT tends to crash when there are alot of connections. (example: NT news-server crashed and went down for nearly a week, after just 20 simultaneous connections) > I realize this is quite a heavy set of questions and I thank you in > advance for the time you'll spend answering I just hope that the time i spent answering will one day be spent answering my questions :) > Didier Gasser-Morlay Joost Roeleveld ************