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

In article <3353A408.F9C85873@strengur.is>, Snorri Bergmann <snorri@strengur.is> writes: > > Sybase 11.0.X Informix 7.22 > > ------------- ------------- > > o ~2 gig max for data cache o 1 gig max for data cache > > > > Drawback Informix. With a smaller data cache there's less data you > > can cache in memory. > > Can't see the problem here. On 32 bit systems max memory is usually > 2 gig so you won't be using it all for data cahce anyway. Correct, but you typically don't have 1 gig of data structures. Realistically you end up with about 1.7-ish gig for data cache. Quite a bit more than 1 gig.... therefore I still give Sybase the advantage here. > > o variable I/O read/writes: o based on platform, only 2/4K read/writes - > > 2/4/8/16K although on the log there are > > group writes > > > > Drawback Informix. I/O is *always* the bottleneck. Allowing 2/4K > > only is very limiting. Oracle does it even better... allowing up > > to 128K per I/O. Excellent for DSS and/or table scans. > > This is incorrect. Informix has a configurable parameter RA_PAGES that > you can set to whatever you like. If you set it to 100 it would > read 200K/IO for a system with 2K pages. Really? I thought that RA_PAGES was simply how many pages to read-ahead and that they'd still be performed as 2/4K I/O's. Suto's book isn't quite clear. Can you confirm this please? > > o command line interface: o no command line interface. You > > isql/sqsh have to use their gui. Ick! > > > > Minor drawback Informix. Personally, I hate having to use their > > GUI. It's cumbersome because it's ascii based so it's not even a > > GUI. > > > > What about dbaccess? I love it! Ick! :-)... this is *strictly* preference... Sybase has a tool called "isql" which...err... is pretty bad... but there's a PD tool named "sqsh" which has t-shell like interface. Extremely cool! I was planning, in my spare time! :-), to rip the API out of "sqsh" and replace it with Informix API... just a matter of time... and permission from the "sqsh" author. -- Pablo Sanchez | wk: 415.933.3812| pg: 800.930.5635 -or- pablo_p@pager.sgi.com --------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------------- pablo@sgi.com ... when mailing me, place "not spam" in the Subject