Re: Feedback from LinuxWorld, London

On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 02:42:43PM -0500, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 02:44:29PM -0300, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> > On Mon, 10 Oct 2005, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> >
> > >On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 07:19:47PM +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > >>>- Many current MySQL users would like to adopt PostgreSQL but
> > >>>feel unable to do so because their application package does not
> > >>>support PostgreSQL at all/well enough or they feel there are
> > >>>technical issues with the MySQL to PostgreSQL code (not data)
> > >>>migration.
> > >>
> > >>And of course they are right.  Porting from MySQL to PostgreSQL
> > >>is a problem, one which could only be solved by dumbing down
> > >>PostgreSQL to accept many of MySQL's idiosyncracies, which isn't
> > >>going to happen.
> > >
> > >There are many features that could be implimented in PostgreSQL
> > >in a way that was both logical and supported MySQL converters,
> > >though. The recent discussion on one of the lists about adding
> > >enum as a type is an example. I'm sure there are others.
> > >
> > >I think the best way to increase migration from MySQL to
> > >PostgreSQL would be to find out what the biggest pains are for
> > >users attempting to migrate and then figure out how we can reduce
> > >that pain. In some cases these solutions might be adding features
> > >to PostgreSQL, but many of them might just involve improving
> > >existing migration tools.
> >
> > Couldn't these features be mostly added as a 'MySQL Compatibility
> > add-on'?  For instance, the enum type you list above ... ?
>
> There's issues with doing that. I know one problem is that you
> currently can't pass parameters in when you define a column in a
> table, which you need to be able to do for an enum.

In this case, it might be easier to make a writeable VIEW with two
tables underneath and an appropriate call to ARRAY() and maybe to
array_to_string()

> But like I said, if we want to improve migration we should find out
> where the users have pain and concentrate on that.

Yes :)

> That was actually the context of the enum discussion.  I threw enum
> out as an example and everyone latched onto it, missing the overall
> point of trying to improve migration from MySQL.

I didn't :)

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter david@fetter.org http://fetter.org/
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