[development] Referential integrity -- finally?

[Dries Buytaert]

Hello world,

Fact: Drupal 6 will finally drop support for MySQL 3.x.

The good news is that we can _finally_ start caring about referential  
integrity.  As of MySQL 4, you can define foreign keys, and even  
though they don't actually work with MyISAM tables they would work  
with InnoDB tables.  Plus, the PostgreSQL community would love us for  
it.  To make a long story short: more DBAs and/or business critical  
websites would take us seriously.

In other words: I'd happily accept patches that add foreign keys to  
Drupal tables.  It woud not be perfect as we can't use cascading  
deletes, for example.  Nevertheless, it would be a great step in the  
right direction -- assuming we can make it all work in a SQL- 
compliant way without leaving MyISAM users in the cold.

If you don't know what referential integrity is, please read up on it:

   http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/print.php/2248101
   http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/print.php/ 
10897_2248101_2

If you want to make a contribution to Drupal but you don't know where  
to start, this would be a great project to wetten your toes in Drupal!

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/