Thread: RE: Re: PostgreSQL vs Oracle vs DB2 vs MySQL - Which sh ould I use?

I also think that a documentation system like PHP uses, where users can add to the docs online would be a REALLY useful addition, and probably help the mailing lists in the level of mail that was distributed.

MikeA

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Sawtell
To: Frank Joerdens; Mitch Vincent
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Sent: 2-16-01 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Re: PostgreSQL vs Oracle vs DB2 vs MySQL - Which should I use?

On Fri, 16 Feb 2001 21:12, Frank Joerdens wrote:

> > Helpful developers doesn't go near far enough..
> >
> > I've seen (and still do see) commercial support that isn't up to the
> > grade of support I have gotten from the -general and -hackers lists.
I
> > can ask any question and I *always* get a response within minutes
from
> > one of the core developers.. I have yet to have a question go
> > un-answered and I've been on the list for a pretty long time! It
just
> > doesn't get much better than that to me.
>
> I agree. The support from the Postgres people is outstanding. There
> seems to be a catch though. It was pretty much the same with PHP about
3
> years ago: I story I keep telling is that my very first question on
the
> list there was answered in less than 30 minutes by Rasmus Lerdorf, the
> inventor of PHP himself (imagine posting a question to M$ and within
30
> mins, the founder of the company . . . ). He's still very active on
the
> list but the sheer volume of postings has reached a limit, due to the
> popularity and success of PHP, where a _lot_ is getting lost and
> unanswered in php-general. I wonder whether this is an inbuilt,
> unavoidable problem with free software projects once they reach a
> certain level of popularity.

Yes it is.

This is a universal problem. It is that once a particular package
reaches
that critical mass it is completely impossible for a small team of
developers to both help the user community _and_ to develop anything at
all. I've seen this in both the free and the comercial software worlds.

The  commercial world tries to solve it by having "Knowledge Base"
machinery of some kind or another. My own exp. is that it simply does
not
work.

It might help to install ht://dig so that the online documentation can
be
searched easily. If people think that that would be a good idea then I'd

be happy to make that contribution.

Another point is that PostgreSQL is widely used by people who have
learnt
English at school. English is a proper horror of a language & it must be

extremely difficult to understand the docs. if you didn't learn English
on
your Mother's knee. I learnt French at school, but I would really _hate_

to have to understand PostgreSQL from French docs. I'm suggesting that
now
that the critical mass of users is nearly upon us that a serious
translation effort be made. Unfortunately I am not sufficiently able in
any foreign language to help with translation, but could perhaps attempt

to make the language of the documentation somewhat easier to understand.

--
Sincerely etc.,

 NAME       Christopher Sawtell
 CELL PHONE 021 257 4451
 ICQ UIN    45863470
 EMAIL      csawtell @ xtra . co . nz
 CNOTES
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/C/tutorials/sawtell_C.tar.gz

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On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 09:40:36AM -0000, Michael Ansley wrote:
>
>    I also think that a documentation system like PHP uses, where users
>    can add to the docs online would be a REALLY useful addition, and
>    probably help the mailing lists in the level of mail that was
>    distributed.

You mean the annotated version of the manual? I don't think it works.
Personally I haven't found anything useful there. The PHP documentation
is very good and mostly sufficient once you have a certain base level of
expertise. Also, a lot of the user additions to the annotated manual are
actually questions. People don't seem to understand what it's really for
. . .

Regards, Frank

I have benefited several times from the annotations on the online PHP
manual, so I think a similar feature for PostgreSQL _would_ be useful.

On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 10:56:17AM +0100, Frank Joerdens wrote:
> You mean the annotated version of the manual? I don't think it works.
> Personally I haven't found anything useful there.

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