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Why Did So Many Startups Choose MongoDB?

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Re: Why Did So Many Startups Choose MongoDB?

#161
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of their code is Hack, and Hack is a superset of PHP (last time I checked all it really adds is static typing and async) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14659729

> all it really adds is static typing and async You make that sound like its not a big deal vs vanilla php.

It's really not. All the sadness and broken-ness of PHP is still there.

Re: Why Did So Many Startups Choose MongoDB?

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MongoDB is like the PHP of databases. I started programming PHP and currently I bash it every time I can, because it is a terrible language. But it is easy to start and do cool stuff, just like mongodb. Initial traction is more important than initial architecture, I guess.

What? Cuz it "sucks"? We all hate PHP, but it works as advertised. I don't agree with the comparison.

These days MongoDB more or less (finally) works as advertised as well. It actually has worthwhile backend options (plural!) and the new (v1 vs v0) replication protocol is actually correct. Eight or so years of development has led to the most egregious of the bugs and corner cases being rounded off.

So, it started as a shitshow on the back-end and people who had to maintain systems based on it hated it, but it got popular because it was easy to get simple systems up and running with. Then, over time, it slowly became less awful as it was substantially rewritten and large portions of it redesigned. I'd say PHP is a very, very good comparison.

Re: Why Did So Many Startups Choose MongoDB?

#163
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all it really adds is static typing and async You make that sound like its not a big deal vs vanilla php.

It's really not. All the sadness and broken-ness of PHP is still there.

A lot broken-ness is still left for the sake of compatibility (especially since HHVM's open-source), but Collections and type hinting make a huge difference.

Re: Why Did So Many Startups Choose MongoDB?

#164
post #86

to avoid schema migrations

And in turn put the schema (actually multiple versions of it) in your application making it more complex. Since Relational Algebra was invented in 1970 we were unable to find a better representation of a relational data, there were many attempts but so far they failed (except for very specialized uses). So I'm inclined to believe it's here to stay. JSON is basically just step backwards back to the XML Database[1] and…

I'd rather keep the logic in my app than have planned downtime for schematic migrations
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