[support] Drupal: MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:46:44 +0200
Pierre Rineau <pierre.rineau at makina-corpus.com> wrote:

> Le mercredi 21 juillet 2010 à 15:24 +0200, Ivan Sergio Borgonovo a
> écrit :
> > On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:29:14 +0200
> > Pierre Rineau <pierre.rineau at makina-corpus.com> wrote:

> MySQL is not an SQL database layer. A real SQL database layer
> must, at least, be ACID compliant :D

It depends on what you call SQL. Depending on definition of SQL many
DB including postgresql aren't SQL compliant. [1]

Most of drupal modules fail to work on DB other than MySQL simply
because they liberally and for no reason use MySQL quirks at the SQL
language "layer", let alone any consideration for ACID stuff. Drupal
itself just recently gained basic support for transactions.

I still have to discover if in D7 eg. modules that add details to
users can be wrapped in a transaction so that users don't get
created mangled, same for nodes etc...

Then if there is a mature support for transactions in core all this
will have to percolate into modules otherwise it won't be that
useful. This will be much trickier than seeing module developers
write nice SQL.

Support for transactions will make Postgresql much more popular and
maybe a better choice for more sites.

[1] we could digress about when DB implementations divert from
standards for a reason (implementing features or avoiding SQL
standard dark areas) or when they do it for ignorance, laziness,
boldness... the same approach reflects in DB users...

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it