RE: [PHP3] MySQL or Informix??? From: Peter Kocks (peter.kocks <email protected>)
Date: 02/29/00

It depends on: 1) how big the database is going to become 2) how you feel
about transactions 3)how you plan to deal with data integrity.

MySQL has supported some very large databases, but not as big as Informix.
For most people this is probably not an issue. However, if you anticipate
either a very large database or a very large number of connections, then
Informix will probably be a better choice. Simply because it's been done
before, not because it's commercial or non-commercial or whatever.

MySQL does not support transactions in the traditional sense. They have
something called atomic transactions, but it is not quite the same thing.
There are good and bad points to each side of this argument. I tend to
favor a traditional transaction supporting database like Informix for a
database that needs transactions. For a small non-transactional database,
MySQL is certainly going to be faster and it should be very stable.

Finally, data integrity. With Informix you can put constraints on tables so
that you can maintain good data integrity. This is a very good thing for
maintaining a database. MySQL requires that you either code the data
integrity into your product or you right some scripts to go through the logs
and check that integrity was maintained (and if not then fix it). Most
people approach databases as just a place to store data and do no use the
tools available for data integrity. In my opinion this is a mistake.

Of course, providing transaction support in the traditional sense and
allowing for table constraints also adds to the complexity (i.e. the
learning curve) and the speed of the database. For these reasons, MySQL may
be the better choice.

--pk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Murray Shields [mailto:murray <email protected>]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 5:10 PM
> To: Brian T. Allen; php3 <email protected>
> Subject: Re: [PHP3] MySQL or Informix???
>
>
> >1) Which is better, MySQL or Informix? Cost is not the issue.
>
> Don't forget that with Informix you need a special license for the web, so
> the cost is big $$$.
>
> Informix is a great database, but we have found that MySQL is very stable,
> fast and reliable. We have not had a "MySQL incident" of any kind
> in over a
> year of use on multiple servers, and we moved to it (in part)
> because of the
> above licensing issue (we already own some Informix licenses for other
> development).
>
> The only performance issues that we have had have been solely due
> to poorly
> written queries (I'm the guilty one), which have since been corrected.
>
> >Brian Allen
> >brian <email protected>
>
> ======================================================================
> Murray Shields Email: murray @ globalcat.com.au
> Global Catalogs Pty Ltd WWW: http://www.globalcat.com.au
> Brisbane Australia Phone: +61 7 3351 4777
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>
>
>
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