mySQL

[Jason]

MySql seems to be a super alternative to perl databases. Using a text file, and a perl interface has many more drawbacks then I thought back when I was a web newby myself, the largest being file locking (the locking of a database so multiple users can't edit at once to prevent crashing). But I'm wondering if mySQL has some drawbacks? Size limitations with efficiency? I'm thinking that 123webmaster will eventually cash in it's links2.0, and switch to mySQL as httpcity recently has for member tracking, and soon will for it's member directory.

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Jason M. DesRoches
Co-Founder / Business Development
Big Resources Network
jason@123webmaster.com
ICQ: 17947522

[Nigel Bowden]

MySQL is a great database, as long as you are aware that it has one or two features which it does not support which you may expect from a commercial DB package.

In my opinion, the 2 most important features which are missing are :

1. Transactions
2. Foreign keys (and hence referential integrity between tables).

For simple web applications the Transactions are not really an issue, as you probably won't need them. However, the referential integrity can be a problem. To maintain referential integrity between tables, you have to take care of it in your scripts by using multiple SQL statements.

Despite this, it is still a great package, very fast and (from what I read) that it scales well to large databases.

[Henrik]

Well, if you have a _very_ large dynamic site with a lot of database queries there could be some problems. MySQL tend to crash if you have a lot of connections open. So MySQL is not a good solution for huge sites.
On the other hand, it is one of the fastest SQL-databases that has ever been made. And there should not be any problem for a site your size.

Henrik Petersson