Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
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Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
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Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#2Sounds like they’re open sourcing it to get some help on it. I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#3Sounds like they’re open sourcing it to get some help on it. I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
> I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
It sounds like it's not compatible with all T-SQL commands and data types. It would be tough to get full feature completeness: Microsoft is constantly adding new stuff in each version, like the ability to run Java stored procedures, R & Python in the database, etc. Open sourcing it would let companies expand it to get specific features coded that they need - that otherwise might not get attention from the general public.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#4Sounds like they’re open sourcing it to get some help on it. I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
It sounds like their goals are pretty lofty -
>Those are the mechanics, but developers need to be certain that Babelfish truly speaks SQL Server’s language in a dependable, predictable way. As such, the guiding principle for Babelfish is correctness, with no compromises. What do I mean by correctness? Namely, that applications designed to use SQL Server semantics will behave the same on PostgreSQL as they would on SQL Server.
I am assuming they just mean in regards to types and the like - to get the same performance characteristics out of the code would be bonkers.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#5I hope this means I can finally connect postgres to excel with the same ease I can connect SQL server.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#6Sounds like they’re open sourcing it to get some help on it. I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
> I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready. It sounds like it's not compatible with all T-SQL commands and data types. It would be tough to get full feature completeness: Microsoft is constantly adding new stuff in each version, like the ability to run Java stored procedures, R & Python in the database, etc. Open sourcing it would let companies expand it to get specifi…
Correct. The focus is on 100% correctness. As I wrote in the post: "Over its 35 years in existence, SQL Server has evolved to meet a wide array of use cases. When first made available on GitHub, Babelfish won’t be able to handle every use case, but will be able to tackle the most common application scenarios. Most importantly, Babelfish will meet the correctness objective. That is, if Babelfish doesn’t yet support specific SQL Server functionality, it will return an error to the application, rather than defaulting to PostgreSQL behavior. Why? Because, again, developers (and the enterprises for which they work) must be able to depend absolutely on the correctness of SQL Server compatibility."
At launch Babelfish will be able to handle - with 100% correctness - the main semantics you'd want. HOWEVER, as you said (and as mentioned in the post), there's a large surface area, and a "long tail" of functionality that needs expertise from us and others to cover. So to do this right, it needs a community. It will be great for many use cases right from the start, but to ensure it's great/perfect for your use case...well, that just might take your help. Please work with us on this.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready. It sounds like it's not compatible with all T-SQL commands and data types. It would be tough to get full feature completeness: Microsoft is constantly adding new stuff in each version, like the ability to run Java stored procedures, R & Python in the database, etc. Open sourcing it would let companies expand it to get specifi…
Correct. The focus is on 100% correctness. As I wrote in the post: "Over its 35 years in existence, SQL Server has evolved to meet a wide array of use cases. When first made available on GitHub, Babelfish won’t be able to handle every use case, but will be able to tackle the most common application scenarios. Most importantly, Babelfish will meet the correctness objective. That is, if Babelfish doesn’t yet support sp…
Would you know if Babelfish will be released for RDS for PostgreSQL as well?
The only mentions so far are for Aurora for PostgreSQL, or self-hosted PostgreSQL.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready. It sounds like it's not compatible with all T-SQL commands and data types. It would be tough to get full feature completeness: Microsoft is constantly adding new stuff in each version, like the ability to run Java stored procedures, R & Python in the database, etc. Open sourcing it would let companies expand it to get specifi…
Correct. The focus is on 100% correctness. As I wrote in the post: "Over its 35 years in existence, SQL Server has evolved to meet a wide array of use cases. When first made available on GitHub, Babelfish won’t be able to handle every use case, but will be able to tackle the most common application scenarios. Most importantly, Babelfish will meet the correctness objective. That is, if Babelfish doesn’t yet support sp…
Interesting. Now where's the Oracle-to-Postgres Translation project? ;-)
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. The focus is on 100% correctness. As I wrote in the post: "Over its 35 years in existence, SQL Server has evolved to meet a wide array of use cases. When first made available on GitHub, Babelfish won’t be able to handle every use case, but will be able to tackle the most common application scenarios. Most importantly, Babelfish will meet the correctness objective. That is, if Babelfish doesn’t yet support sp…
Interesting. Now where's the Oracle-to-Postgres Translation project? ;-)
Their legal team might still be preparing for this one given Oracle's reputation.
Re: Babelfish: SQL Server-to-Postgres Translation Layer
#10Sounds like they’re open sourcing it to get some help on it. I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready.
> I have to wonder if they’ve found it not worth the time to make it fully production ready. It sounds like it's not compatible with all T-SQL commands and data types. It would be tough to get full feature completeness: Microsoft is constantly adding new stuff in each version, like the ability to run Java stored procedures, R & Python in the database, etc. Open sourcing it would let companies expand it to get specifi…
At that point, thinking that SQL somehow is "portable" from a DB to another is a bit of a mirage. Way too many differences between systems, which does influence data modelling itself.