PostgreSQL 8.0 released!

Belisarius · 01-19-2005, 04:26 AM

Now it has a native Windows server! It also has a lot of other stuff that is probably even cooler, but I don't know what they really do yet. Check it out at www.postgresql.org.

idx · 01-19-2005, 05:54 AM

Hm. I'll have to look at it again. Last time (7.2.1?) I got it working, but didn't have time to push all the buttons. I got tired of spending time on it and continued on with MySQL.

-r

sde · 01-19-2005, 07:24 AM

i should probably begin to learn to work with postgre. maybe this is a good reason now.

technobard · 01-19-2005, 12:39 PM

As a database guy, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for PostgreSQL. It has always had more of a commercial feature set than others (i.e. MySQL), but for some reason got the short end of the stick. Too bad, really. Marketing is everything. They missed the boat early on.

The object-relational features were ahead of their time. I've used OR in Oracle. It's a clumsy half-baked add-on implementation if ever I saw one. PostgreSQL OR is simpler to use and in some ways more powerful (at least from my review some time ago). You can create a table and then inherit that design in the creation of a new table. There probably aren't a lot of people using those features, but that's beside the point.

Belisarius · 01-19-2005, 01:41 PM

PostgreSQL is going to be my database of choice for a good long time, I think. I've always liked the way that PostgreSQL sort of forces you to do things right, rather than letting you do things easy (but are bad ideas). For instance, I've never been comfortable with the idea that a blank string constitues NULL. PostgreSQL doesn't let you do that.

I suppose I've been swayed by the Postgres vs. MySQL argument, namely the argument that MySQL wasn't a serious database as it did weird things way too often, and lacked things like transactions. But, in all fairness, it does what people need it to do, and does so well enough that places like Slashdot use it.

idx · 01-20-2005, 07:54 PM

Quote:

But, in all fairness, it does what people need it to do, and does so well enough that places like Slashdot use it.

Marketing is one thing (and MS is proof of that), but that's exactly right. MySQL does the kind of things that most people need, most of the time and it's pretty damn fast. Not every app needs row-level locking and all the other bits and frankly not everyone has the time to mess with that. [albeit most mysql apps would work just fine with sqlite]

..And last time I installed PG, it was a PITA. Yeah, I know, spoiled by the unnecessarily friendly mysql.