Which database is the most user friendly?
Submitted by fvs on Thu 6 Jul 2006
| Postgres |
   25% | 111 votes |
| Mysql |
58% | 260 votes |
| Kexi |
1% | 6 votes |
| OOo.base |
2% | 11 votes |
| SQLite |
9% | 43 votes |
| Interbase |
2% | 10 votes |
| Total 441 votes |
I voted Postgres, but I'm thinking SQL itself is getting long in the tooth, and hasn't matured well.
Whilst I am discovering it is a sophisticated beast, and most things are possible ultimately, it isn't as expressive as one might hope.
A classic one is how do you get results that don't match a query -- some sort "INVERSE" operator? No you do a left join, and look for null. Might be obvious to a logic guru, but I bet most programmers asked someone else first time.
Today I was pondering doing a set of categories in a hierarchy, but hierarchies are nasty relationship for SQL, and it is difficult to query against a hierarchy, desite things like hierarchy being incredibly common in both the real world, and especially information technology. Easy to ask "who are this nodes grandparents, or grand children with a couple of joins, but try asking who this nodes descedants are without recursion.
Sure one can use a "nested set", but it is just the kind of logic that ought to be built into the database itself, as it is a common use case, and hide the implementation from the user (Okay I can reuse the same stored procedures many a time and oft).
Even simple use cases, like "UPDATE or INSERT" aren't universally supported (in some cases with good reason) in the free software databases. Resulting in hideously complex answers on the Postgres mailing list.
Some stuff went into SQL99 to address some of these issues, but practically nothing implements it. Can someone convince me relational databases aren't a waste of disk space? What should I be looking at instead?
Whilst I am discovering it is a sophisticated beast, and most things are possible ultimately, it isn't as expressive as one might hope.
A classic one is how do you get results that don't match a query -- some sort "INVERSE" operator? No you do a left join, and look for null. Might be obvious to a logic guru, but I bet most programmers asked someone else first time.
Today I was pondering doing a set of categories in a hierarchy, but hierarchies are nasty relationship for SQL, and it is difficult to query against a hierarchy, desite things like hierarchy being incredibly common in both the real world, and especially information technology. Easy to ask "who are this nodes grandparents, or grand children with a couple of joins, but try asking who this nodes descedants are without recursion.
Sure one can use a "nested set", but it is just the kind of logic that ought to be built into the database itself, as it is a common use case, and hide the implementation from the user (Okay I can reuse the same stored procedures many a time and oft).
Even simple use cases, like "UPDATE or INSERT" aren't universally supported (in some cases with good reason) in the free software databases. Resulting in hideously complex answers on the Postgres mailing list.
Some stuff went into SQL99 to address some of these issues, but practically nothing implements it. Can someone convince me relational databases aren't a waste of disk space? What should I be looking at instead?
[ Parent ]
Is it free software?
There is a free software OODMS packaged in Debian, but it is in Java, and primarily for Java developers. Perhaps I should have written by webapps in JSP.
However there are plenty of simple cases where one would only want a simple extension to the database to handle these common cases without necessarily leaping into objects for everything.
So I'll add libtangram-perl to my list of things to check, to see if it is useful. There are also some C/C++ persistent object things around, so I guess I ought to check their suitability.
Zope - argh - perhaps it isn't the database that make Plone perform like a dog?!
There is a free software OODMS packaged in Debian, but it is in Java, and primarily for Java developers. Perhaps I should have written by webapps in JSP.
However there are plenty of simple cases where one would only want a simple extension to the database to handle these common cases without necessarily leaping into objects for everything.
So I'll add libtangram-perl to my list of things to check, to see if it is useful. There are also some C/C++ persistent object things around, so I guess I ought to check their suitability.
Zope - argh - perhaps it isn't the database that make Plone perform like a dog?!
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (216.13.xx.xx) on Fri 7 Jul 2006 at 13:52
me learn englash good, yes?
[ Parent ]
Calm down, Yoda...
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (85.99.xx.xx) on Sat 8 Jul 2006 at 09:01
It depends on the definition of "user friendly".
If you take the definition "Joe/Jane User can create a database and insert data into it and even create queries easily" then the answer will be Kexi or OOo.base.
If you take the definition "It is easy to create and maintain new databases" then the obvious winner is SQLite. Since it does not require you to install a full blown database server. New databases can be created as easily as "touch my.db"
If you take the definition "It is easy for a system administrator to configure and keep secure" then the will be between MySQL, Postgres and Interbase/Firebird
So I think the options or the question needs to be redefined (though I prefer SQLite most of the time).
If you take the definition "Joe/Jane User can create a database and insert data into it and even create queries easily" then the answer will be Kexi or OOo.base.
If you take the definition "It is easy to create and maintain new databases" then the obvious winner is SQLite. Since it does not require you to install a full blown database server. New databases can be created as easily as "touch my.db"
If you take the definition "It is easy for a system administrator to configure and keep secure" then the will be between MySQL, Postgres and Interbase/Firebird
So I think the options or the question needs to be redefined (though I prefer SQLite most of the time).
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (217.216.xx.xx) on Sat 8 Jul 2006 at 11:57
It doesn't matter because all your base are belong to us ;)
[ Parent ]
I use Java most often -- and for development the combination of HSQLdb and hibernate is probably the best.
[ Parent ]