Re: Informix vs. Sybase vs. Oracle vs. (gasp) MS SQL Server

In article <yut90ubc70r.fsf@mew.corp.sgi.com>, Pablo Sanchez <pablo@sgi.com> writes >>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Brown <pbrown@triplerock.Berkeley.EDU> writes: >Paul> >Paul> Pablo Sanchez (pablo@sgi.com) wrote: >Paul> : >>>>> "Paul" == Paul Brown <pbrown@triplerock.Berkeley.EDU> writes: >Paul> : Paul> >Paul> : Paul> To quote from Jim Gray, (_Transaction_Processing_:_Concepts_and_ >Paul> : Paul> Techniques_ pp. 420-21); >Paul> : Paul> >Paul> : >Paul> : Unless something has changed, aren't you still an Informix >Paul> : employee (or employed in some fashion by them)? If so, then >Paul> : of course you're going to post supporting literature... >Paul> >Paul> Yes. I am an Informix Employee. You're the keeper of the >Paul> Sybase FAQ. Religon counts for something. > >I'm the keeper of the Sybase FAQ however I'm also aware >of the benefits in certain areas of Informix and Oracle. I'm the new keeper of the Informix FAQ and I agree with almost all of your points (altough I hate Oracle). Sybase is a close no 2. in my book! >Heck, I'm not blinded by religion. I have posted to >c.d.s. with my gripes regarding Sybase. You can search >dejanews for 'em: > > o isolation level 0 implementation - crap > o ... > >Anyway, I may be the maintainer but I try not to live my >life with a pair of rosey glasses. > >Ask how Oracle does serializability... > Yeach! >Paul> When I'm simply trying to contribute to a technical debate, and >Paul> don't want my affiliations to obscure my contributions, I >Paul> post from UCB. I said *nothing* positive or negative about >Paul> anyone. If you like, I can post references to the IBM >Paul> research (some of which is also attributed to Jim Gray) which >Paul> argues for your case. > >To be fair, that would have complemented your initial post well. > >Paul> The irony here is that I actually agree with you! > >I know, I know... I was hoping for more static from ya... :-) > >Paul> A well >Paul> designed schema should require only page granularity. (Another >Paul> important topic unbroached in this thread concerns >Paul> lock escallation strategies.) > >Which Sybase *used* suck at... *finally* system 11 handles >it right.... > >Paul> But the practical reality is >Paul> that people don't always do 'the right thing'. This is the >Paul> 'hard lesson' Gray refers to. > >Unfortunately what you say is true... this is why Oracle's >versionings works so well... they appeal to the general >masses who don't do things right. I guess therein lies opportunity. Agreed, I think we both dislike Oracle's approach! PS As a reader of c.d.s perhaps we should pool or OS knwoledge after all Informix/Sybase both demand similar things from an OS.... -- David Williams