Thread: Best programming language / connectivity for best performance

I really wouldn't take relative DB performance into much consideration
when choosing a programming language for your project.  I have found
that the actual Language/API overhead to be pretty inconsequential in
most of my projects.  When my DB access is slow, I have found it is
almost always a problem with my query or the DB is just overloaded.

There is one exception I can think of, and that's doing bound controls
in VB through ODBC.  I haven't done bound controls in VB for years and
years, so I don't even know if it's still in the language, but they're
crappy and you shouldn't use them.  When I'm using a RAD tool like VB
etc. I *never* use design-level tools to handle my DB IO.  When I write
a client side app, I manually handle my own DB IO and let the GUI simply
handle the user interface.


Nico Callewaert wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was wondering what is the best database connectivity and programming
> language to get the best performance with PostgreSQL.  I'm currently
> working with Delphi, but I don't know if that is the best way to go ?
>

Nico,

I do not believe there is anyone who can tell you the "best way to go" as
that is determined by far more than DB access.

That said, I am inclined to agree with John.  I would expand on that to say
that if Delphi is the only language you know, then it is the best option for
getting productive quickly.  Otherwise, you have to resort to multiparadigm
development and determine which of the languages you know best meets the
requirements for your project.  I use FORTRAN, C++, and JAVA, and I know VB,
Perl, and PHP.  If I require an outstanding object model, my choice reduces
to C++ and JAVA, because the object model in FORTRAN is almost as seriously
broken  as that in VB.  I generally don't use VB, except for trivial toys,
and even there, it has been years since I used it.  Perl and PHP are
interesting, but I have yet to see an advantage they can offer over JAVA
(including servlets and JSP) or C++.  I use FORTRAN for specialty programs
requiring extensive number crunching, but it is being displaced in my own
work by C++ particularly because of the advantages provided by
metaprogramming.  The only languages I have used for commercial application
development are C++ and Java.  If there is significant networking and/or
security, I lean towards JAVA because of the related libraries built into
the SDK.  OTOH, if I need real generic programming, I lean toward C++
because, while JAVA has made some progress in generics, it is still quite
broken relative to the powerful support for generics in C++.  And, if there
is a need for metaprogramming based on generic programming, then C++ is the
only choice I am aware of.  You see, every language has it's strengths and
weaknesses, and you generally need to choose based on what you know about
each language you know how to use, and the availability of libraries to
support your problem domain.  In my experience, you become a more productive
and better programmer as you make a point of learning more programming
languages and give thought to their relative strengths and weaknesses.

Almost invariably, when my use of a DB is slow, it is because I have a
problem with my queries.  This happens more often than it should, but then I
have been programming using languages like FORTRAN, Pascal, Basic and C++
(all closely related Algol languages) for well over two dozen years and I
started studying RDBMS and SQL only a few years ago.  Like John, when I'm
using a RAD tool (and I should say I like Delphi almost as much as I like
Netbeans and Borland's C++ Builder), I handle DB access in my own code and
let the GUI handle the interface only.

My experience with bound controls is similar to John's. They are a
convenience for novice programmers, but once you start adding more
professional features, such as data validation and formatting, they leave
just about everything to be desired.  In my work, they served as a
convenience during proof of concept work to show a client where their
project was heading, but in virtually every case, I replaced them for one
reason or another.  They just didn't provide the feature set I required and
it was just less work to use the basic controls than it was to fight with
broken bound controls.

Cheers,

Ted


----- Original Message -----
From: "John McCawley" <nospam@hardgeus.com>
To: "Nico Callewaert" <nico_callewaert@yahoo.com>
Cc: <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 9:06 AM
Subject: [Bulk] Re: [GENERAL] Best programming language / connectivity for
best performance


>I really wouldn't take relative DB performance into much consideration when
>choosing a programming language for your project.  I have found that the
>actual Language/API overhead to be pretty inconsequential in most of my
>projects.  When my DB access is slow, I have found it is almost always a
>problem with my query or the DB is just overloaded.
>
> There is one exception I can think of, and that's doing bound controls in
> VB through ODBC.  I haven't done bound controls in VB for years and years,
> so I don't even know if it's still in the language, but they're crappy and
> you shouldn't use them.  When I'm using a RAD tool like VB etc. I *never*
> use design-level tools to handle my DB IO.  When I write a client side
> app, I manually handle my own DB IO and let the GUI simply handle the user
> interface.
>
>
> Nico Callewaert wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>  I was wondering what is the best database connectivity and programming
>> language to get the best performance with PostgreSQL.  I'm currently
>> working with Delphi, but I don't know if that is the best way to go ?
>>
>
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