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Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

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Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#71

Post by rimantas »

Daishiman wrote: post #67
rimantas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you just don't know what you are doing.

Maybe you just have nothing to say and don't recognize that such behavirs are clearly wrong, that failing silently for a database is a case of bad design, and MySQL is just technically inferior to Postgres. Or are we missing something?

Yes you are. The first thing you are missing that such behaviors are configurable: you can choose whether to fail silently or get an error. The second thing you are missing is the reason such behavior exist in the first place — namely, there are usage scenarios when it is preferable. Having ability to choose which trade-offs to have is in no way technical inferiority.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#72

Post by 146 »

weego wrote: post #33

Is quora flooding their own site with self-posed questions trying to get publicity and rankings? The only time I've ever heard of it is from the oxygen of publicity HN seems to give it.

Nah. You can usually (but not always) tell who asks the question by checking the first person who's following the question, or by checking the question history by clicking on the timestamp.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#73

Post by petrilli »

blueberry wrote: post #57
petrilli wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better question would be: who uses MySQL as anything but a glorified key-value store when reaching large sizes? I personally have been involved in trying to use MySQL as a "real database" in the 10-100TB range and let me tell you, it's not pretty. I'm not sure about the open source PostgreSQL, but I know Greenplum has petabyte level warehouses running on a distributed version of it. A few observations: 1) MyISAM's…

who uses MySQL as anything but a glorified key-value store when reaching large sizes? My assumption is both Quora and Facebook use MySQL this way. While you are right that this is not using it as a real database , I want to know if PostgreSQL is deployed in a similar setup at all. Most of the people (including you) don't take into account the fact that there are many cases where MySQL (used as a KV store) proved to w…

The introduction of hstore actually lets you do this natively. I think it's partially that PostgreSQL people tend not to try and use the hammer as a screw driver, but maybe that's just me.

Or maybe sometimes MySQL is a screw driver being used as a hammer?

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#74

Post by joshu »

joshu wrote: post #17

there's one useful thing about postgresql: specifically, interviewees that inform you you should be using postgresql can be immediately rejected. "do you use mysql or postgresql?" "oh, mys-" "YOU SHOULD SWITCH TO POSTGRESQL!!"

I love the fact that this got downvoted to zero. More religion.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#75

Post by Daishiman »

rimantas wrote: post #71
Daishiman wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you just have nothing to say and don't recognize that such behavirs are clearly wrong, that failing silently for a database is a case of bad design, and MySQL is just technically inferior to Postgres. Or are we missing something?

Yes you are. The first thing you are missing that such behaviors are configurable: you can choose whether to fail silently or get an error. The second thing you are missing is the reason such behavior exist in the first place — namely, there are usage scenarios when it is preferable. Having ability to choose which trade-offs to have is in no way technical inferiority.

Never in my entire experience as a software developer have I seen a case where a database should fail silently. It's bullshit and you know it.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#76

Post by code_duck »

scg wrote: post #21
code_duck wrote: post #7

That's why database abstraction is so nice. If I ever get sick of MySQL - or say, decided I didn't want to use Postgres - it's not hard to switch!

Database abstraction isn't, or at least isn't practical. Small projects don't need an interchangeable database. Bigger projects won't let you get away without making assumptions about the database. Nothing but the basics work the same between SQLite and ORACLE.

SQLite... Oracle? never used either one, but I believe it.

I'm talking about MySQL vs. Postgres.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#77

Post by code_duck »

drivingmenuts wrote: post #18
code_duck wrote: post #7

That's why database abstraction is so nice. If I ever get sick of MySQL - or say, decided I didn't want to use Postgres - it's not hard to switch!

It's very helpful to know what's going on behind the scenes of that pretty little database abstraction, though.

If I ever have to care, hopefully I'll be hiring some guy with a beard to think about that for me.

Re: Why doesn't Quora use PostgreSQL

#78

Post by code_duck »

mhd wrote: post #30
code_duck wrote: post #7

That's why database abstraction is so nice. If I ever get sick of MySQL - or say, decided I didn't want to use Postgres - it's not hard to switch!

Depends on your abstraction system. If we're talking about SQL, the incompatibilities abound. And ORM's or other libraries tend to be either very, very complex or tend to implement everything in the most simple way. Both not very good for performance. Never mind that most frameworks don't have the same level of support for every DB (open source libraries tend to have very limited Oracle/SQL Server support) And this i…

I'm thinking on a fairly medium scale, I guess, and mainly just about PG/MySQL. (You mean other databases exist?? Never even seen such a thing!).
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