Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work.
The main reason webcrap works is because the databases underneath work. If the Javascript crowd had to manage data storage, nothing persistent would work reliably.
What’s so exciting about Postgres?
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Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#12I started using PostgreSQL because, at the time, MySQL wouldn't do subqueries. The fact it silently truncated VARCHAR data to the size of the column and didn't give out an error didn't help much.
Overall, my impression is that the project's philosophy is to do the Correct Thing, even if it's slow.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#13I like the this whole class of questions "What's so exciting/good about ?"
Online (forums, etc) this type of question usually elicits informative answers, and probably in face to face communication too.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#14> It was really funny, Uber switched from MySQL to Postgres, and then Postgres to MySQL. So they’ve gone back and forth a couple of times, but when they’ve swapped to Postgres, they had to figure out – they had all this app logic that relied on things being case-insensitive, because the database just doesn’t respect case search. This suggests to me that the guest here maybe doesn't know about collations? But that doe…
Guest here. The context is Uber was on MySQL which by default doesn't respect (or at least in their version and setup at the time) case sensitivity. To MySQL craig is the same as Craig when matching. Their app for search relied on this. The solution for them was the citext data type to create a case insensitive string - https://www.postgresql.org/docs/13/citext.html I'm fairly familiar with Postgres, but have not hea…
Case insensitive search is accomplished with ILIKE no?
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#15Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work . The main reason webcrap works is because the databases underneath work. If the Javascript crowd had to manage data storage, nothing persistent would work reliably.
> Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work.
A complicated thing which just works is exciting.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#16PostgreSQL isn't exciting. It's boring, with roots in the Berkeley Ingress project from the mid 80s. Which is why 10 years ago, so many HNers went with trendy NoSQL data stores instead, even though they lost data. Data loss is very exciting, and PostgreSQL is very boring. This preference for what's exciting and trendy over what's old and proven is a large reason why so much software today sucks.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#17PostgreSQL isn't exciting. It's boring, with roots in the Berkeley Ingress project from the mid 80s. Which is why 10 years ago, so many HNers went with trendy NoSQL data stores instead, even though they lost data. Data loss is very exciting, and PostgreSQL is very boring. This preference for what's exciting and trendy over what's old and proven is a large reason why so much software today sucks.
That seems unfair.
NoSQL was trying out new ideas in data storage. It was exciting to try out new or re-imagined core concepts, and some of those young projects had teething issues. But several are still around and remain popular, but they're popular for certain niches they excel at (and those niches were largely discovered through trial and error).
In the SQL-sphere a lot of people skipped Postgres because MySQL had, at the time, the momentum in the free/cheap relational database space. Between then and now Progres has grown more elegantly than MySQL, and people are rightfully looking to it.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#18Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work . The main reason webcrap works is because the databases underneath work. If the Javascript crowd had to manage data storage, nothing persistent would work reliably.
> Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work . A complicated thing which just works is exciting.
One man's exciting is another's snorefest. A lot of people would probably laugh at the suggestion that anything involving computers could be exciting.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#19Databases shouldn't be exciting. They should just work . The main reason webcrap works is because the databases underneath work. If the Javascript crowd had to manage data storage, nothing persistent would work reliably.
It is often downvoted to talk about the "javascript crowd" on HN, but I've worked in software industry long enough to unequivocally and with certainty say that it totally lives up to the cliches.
It never gets old to scold people that are not serious, disciplined and principled in their endeavors that affect the rest of the world. Javascript community absolutely deserves the avalanche of criticisms they face.
It is the reason why the modern web sucks, and frankly - I wish folks at Postgres would develop a new web standards including browsers that are not governed by corporations and can be implemented in a couple of weeks. Not trivializing what goes into building browsers, but making the whole standard small enough so any one can build a browser during a sabbatical.
Re: What’s so exciting about Postgres?
#20Surprised they didn't cover transaction id wraparound, which has caused more than a few public outages at scale.
IIRC some Postgres folks have a plan to fix it? Maybe Craig knows?