Most of the better forum packages us some form of a SQL complaint database server like Microsoft's SQL Server or MySQL (among others). We use MS SQL. A few forums still use text files for data storage but they are not designed to handle tons of posts.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Microsoft basher; I'm a whore who'll use anything a customer thinks they want to pay for (as long as I get to charge 'em labor)!

This forum, the whole site really, seems to be stable and responsive, though -- kudos!

I admit I've avoided ASP like the plague in the past, but lately I'm a lot less leery of it, in no small part from seeing ADT function under load. And slogging through a few projects of my own, which I admit wryly, do seem to work.

I feel I'd be remiss, though, if I didn't point out User Defined Functions in MySQL and the new MaxDB (previously SAP DB, SAP's open source enterprise database server) supports views, stored procedures, snapshots, etc.
All MySQL versions 3.23.x and above support the HEAP table type, which is tables in memory that can be comined with UDFs to give you the functionality Drew mentioned.

That said, I'm not evangelical about MySQL; I just think it's nice to know you have alternatives (especially if you enjoy running webservers on FreeBSD, which I *am* evangelical about! ).

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I'd really like to get away from M$'s stuff. I don't like the direction they're going. Too much Big Brother stuff in the works with them. If I were to make a switch it would most likely be to Python/MySQL. I don't know much about Python yet but from what I've read it seems like a language I would be very comfortable with.

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Hey Drew, you haven't missed anything concering MySQL and stored procedures, views, etc. -- the 4.0 branch still lists these features as "in development". In the 3.23.x branch, they're not even planned, AFAIK. It was only ever meant to be fast and stable (and as a glorified flat file engine, it does that fabulously!). I've used more than my share of MySQL 3.23 and 4.0 because it's down and dirty, quick, easy, stable and fast and so many nifty packages you don't have to write from scratch Lego right in with it.

The product that implements these features I mentioned in the previous post is MaxDB, and it's merely a rebrand of SAP DB. MySQL's development team acquired the entire project from SAP who basically said "Take it, use it, charge people for training and develop on it for them". For serious demands, projects that require true ACIDity, it may be the only open source product aside from PostgeSQL that can cut the mustard.

I can't fully endorse MaxDB until I've put it through the wringer, but shit, SAP isn't known for playing around!

As for Python, you mind if I evangelize a bit for PHP? PHP 5 will be out soon and it promises a full OOP implementation (Java model, rather than C++). I've been using the 4 branch to develop browser-based apps for about three years and I've enjoyed the hell out of it!

If you're familiar with coding in C or C-like languages, picking up PHP is a no-brainer and it does a little bit of everything: hooks into dozens of database backends, reads and writes PDF on the fly, supports fopen() via FTP and HTTP (useful!), has incredibly rich string and array-handling functions (these alone got me hook, line and sinker -- I loves me some strings and arrays!), can be compiled for MCAL calendaring functions, supports SOAP (with the nuSOAP library), XML (via Sablotron), man the list goes on.

Python's great but it's syntax and structure takes some getting used to, and Perl of course is a workhorse (and there's SO MUCH prewritten plug and play code for it, for one thing), but PHP is dreamy. The last few versions now compile with a command line interface so you can create batch files, shell scripts, etc. that don't require a browser to invoke (thus zapping the need for Perl).

Of course we can stick with .NET and be assured we'll have a future! I know there are more jobs for C#, which I've been using for about six months, and VB.NET, than there are for PHP/MySQL/Linux/FreeBSD, but from a sheer coder's joy standpoint I gotta give the edge to open source over the .NET bloat beast. Maybe that's just resentment over having to finally give up my procedural ways...you can't NOT code OOP under .NET, and that's good, but in many cases I could whip out a VB6 project in a day that takes me a week in VB.NET. *SIGH*

I'll shut up now. There's no shortage of documentation I need to be reading and slitting my wrists over.

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I think it's wonderful - super easy to use and extremely versatile. I've always wondered why it never caught on.

~ GaySatyr

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DenverDon

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