[development] So why we do support postgresql?

[Konstantin Käfer]

Hi,

I am with Károly on this one. PostgreSQL support is certainly a nice  
to have feature, but since there is noone seriously using it  
(NowPublic used PostgreSQL a couple of months ago but eventually  
switched to MySQL), supporting it is more a hinderance than an actual  
benefit for Drupal.

Fact is that MySQL is by far the most used DBMS used with Drupal. That  
has two reasons: MySQL is installed on most hosts and most people in  
the PHP hosting business are familiar with setting up, configuring and  
tuning MySQL.

The second reason is that most contrib modules don't properly support  
Postgres, and only few people are running a Drupal site without  
several contrib modules. So, what buys us supporting Postgres in core  
if you can't actually use it because critical contrib modules don't  
support it properly? You guessed it. Let's not get into the illusion  
that module maintainers will eventually add Postgres support; most of  
them don't even have Postgres installed and I bet most are not willing  
to learn yet another DBMS' innards to circumnavigate all the cliffs  
associated with that task.

IMO, there are two ways we could go:

- Rip out Postgres support (but let's not drop the DBAL; we need it  
for mysql vs. mysqli and it's not really a speed issue)
- Completely abstract access to the database so that module authors  
don't have to write actual SQL code


Konstantin Käfer -- http://kkaefer.com/


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On 15.01.2008, at 19:22, Karoly Negyesi wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Still there are no testers. I want to reiterate my plea: make
> postgresql support somewhat optional. If there are testers, great, if
> not, go on with life. You can flame me, but this is already the state
> of affairs just noone wants to admit. Just see
> http://groups.drupal.org/node/6980 . Greg spoonfeeds you. I know we
> will get testers for the rest of the week because of this letter and
> then they will move away as it happened uncounted times.
>
> I wonder what people will say. "Monoculture is bad" -- tick, do not
> bother with this answer. "You are evil" -- tick, do not bother either.
> "There are testers, but" -- surely there are just they have hidden
> themselves really well. What about answering something constructive? I
> *am* bored by needing this raised every month.
>
> Regards
>
> Karoly Negyesi

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