Re: MySQL refugee interested in pgSQL

Jesse,

> I am a MySQL guy. I am interested in pgSQL. I have learned roughly
> everything I know about databases from using MySQL, and all that that
> implies. I would like to learn about PG and about "real" relational
> database theory. Links to any type of "PGsql for MySQL vets" and/or "Real
> relational database theory for MySQL vets" documents would be appreciated.

www.dbdebunk.com
-- the content is kind of fragmentary, but it's a starting point.  Mostly I'd 
go with books:
"Pratical Issues In Database Management" by Fabian Pascal;
"The Essence of Databases"
"The Relational Model" by CJ Date,
and the very hefty canonical "Introduction to Data Management Systems" by 
Date.

I don't think you need to worry about hostility -- if you want to learn 
PostgreSQL, we're not going to be hostile.   We reserve our ire for 
unrepentant MySQL users ;-)

Anyway, the whole relational thing is a long road of learning (I picked mine 
up, on the job and in books, over 10 years) without an immediate payoff which 
is, I think, why so many DBA's blow it off and satisfy themselves with 
groping about in the dark.  Some points to keep in mind:

1) The relational model is a theory based on a tested mathematical model;
2) The SQL standard is an imperfect implementation of the relational model;
3) existing RDBMSes are imperfect implementations of the SQL standard;
4) The standard, standards compliance, and the general level of database 
theory and relational education has been steeply declining since the mid 
90's, due to apathy and clever marketing my certain database vendors.

> But at the same time I am cut very deep by the animous shown towards MySQL
> and it's users on a personal level. It is as if, by entrusting data of any
> kind to a MySQL database, I am clubbing baby seals somehow.

Of course you are!  <grin>

Seriously, a little history (and keep in mind that I haven't done a survey, so 
take what I say about other people's opinions with a grain of salt)

1) When MySQL was starting out, they (the development team) saw PostgreSQL as 
their chief rival, and thus took every possible opportunity to slander us in 
the press, their documentation, and online forums.  While the MySQL strategy 
has changed and some people have apologized, some of the people who so 
virulently attacked PostgreSQL a few years ago are still in leadership 
positions at MySQL.

2) From *our* perspective, MySQL is a technically inferior database buoyed up 
by expensive marketing, and to add insult to injury is not really an open 
source project.  As such, many PostgreSQL volunteers have the exact same fear 
and resentment of MySQL that Linux advocates do of Windows.   It's not really 
MySQL that we hate, so much as a marketplace that is all-too-willing to 
reward inferior solutions in glossy packaging.

3) Many of use also see MySQL as symtomatic of the general decline of database 
technology, including the reversion to old, bad database models and the 
fragmenting of standards.   People who started programming in those old, bad, 
days don't want to go back to them, and fear that they will be forced to use 
MySQL in the future.

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

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