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MySQL questions

Alex Martelli aleax at aleax.it
Wed May 8 02:35:10 EDT 2002 
Gerhard Häring wrote:

> Billy Ng wrote in comp.lang.python:
>> [MySQL doesn't do subselects]
>> I notice the subselect will be in version 4
> 
> That would be version 4.1. And also according to
> 
> 
http://www.mysql.com/documentation/mysql/bychapter/manual_Introduction.html#TODO
> 
> I'll have to wait for MySQL 5.0 for it to be comparable feature-wise
> to what PostgreSQL offers today.

The assessment at 1.9.2 on that same webpage seems reasonable:
"If you need raw speed, MySQL Server is probably your best choice. If you 
need some of the extra features that only PostgreSQL can offer, you should 
use PostgreSQL".  (Interestingly, MySQL has a BSD-like, "core-developers-
group" cathedral-like approach, while PostgreSQL is closer to the "bazaar" 
approach -- judging from just the products, I could have guessed the
other way 'round.)  I'm biased, probably because I never really had to
push the scalability limits of a database: I'm not sure I could live
without subselects and views, in particular, and stored procedures,
triggers, atomic multi-table updates, etc, are all very useful, so, I
lean towards PostgreSQL.  But I can well imagine somebody just needing to
push lots and lots of data very fast without any such niceties might lean
the other way.


Alex
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