[development] Drupal could be 10x times faster with correct indexing

[David Timothy Strauss]

My reply may have been overly blunt, but it's insulting to have someone post to our development list promising a 10x performance boost from methods we've clearly considered and implemented. Development work and discussion surrounding database indexes is easy to find with a quick search of Drupal.org.

----- "David Timothy Strauss" <david at fourkitchens.com> wrote:

> When it comes to database capabilities, MySQL is quite a bit more than
> a glorified card catalog. When it comes to database architecture,
> Drupal developers are quite a bit more than rejected Microsoft Access
> programmers.
> 
> ----- "Jean-Michel Pouré" <jm at poure.com> wrote:
> 
> > Here is the issue with solutions:
> > http://drupal.org/node/276742
> 
> From the issue, it seems like your indexes are missing or
> misconfigured.
> 
> > When using MySQL, you don't really know how SQL queries are
> treated,
> > except execution times that may be monitored (?).
> 
> Wrong. Use EXPLAIN.
> 
> > This way, the database server is always faster than any kind of PHP
> cache.
> 
> Wrong. Databases have higher latency for even simple queries compared
> to PHP static caching and memcache.
> 
> > There is an extensive query debugging needed on Drupal:
> > [...]
> > 6) Add indexes everywhere.
> 
> Wrong. Indexes add multiple forms of overhead. They should not be
> added gratuitously. Indexes should be added when they enhance
> performance more than they cost it or if they enhance data integrity
> (UNIQUE/PRIMARY keys).
> 
> > [...] I consider this as a bug, [...]
> 
> Wrong. Bugs are issues of correctness. Performance improvements are
> not issues of correctness.