Re: Informix vs Sybase(Urgent)

In article <3557F550.CB526222@agd.nsw.gov.au>, Anthony Mandic <no_sp.am@agd.nsw.gov.au> writes >Frank Chao wrote: > >> Some consulting company is trying to persuade us to switch my group >> from Informix to Sybase, and they gave us the following arguments. Do >> you know if the following arguments are true? Which is better choice? > > I don't pretend to be an Informix expert but I know enough to > know that their arguments appear specious. > >> 1. Informix doesn't support a fixed-width binary datatype, like the >> Informix > ^^^^^^^^ Do you/they mean Sybase here? > >> "binary" type, or the Oracle "RAW" type. The primary key value we'd >> like to >> use is most efficiently represented using a binary datatype. As a A serial (4 byte integer would be more efficent. Indexes needs for joins would be smaller and hence involve less disk I/O. >> workaround, we can represent the value as text, using the Informix >> "CHAR" type, but in doing so we take a performance hit. > > I'd like to know why their primary key value is best represented > in a binary datatype. With Sybase, I would have used either an > int or a numeric. I'm sure Informix has equivalents. A char > datatype would have slight performance issues but its choice > isn't as dumb as binary for a key value. > >> 2. Informix doesn't support the type of stored procedure construct we >> need. >> Though Informix does support stored procs, it doesn't seem to support a >> form >> of stored proc which lets you rapidly evaluate a query, and then return >> the >> result set as a series of rows in the same fashion that a SELECT might. WITH RESUME??? >> Currently, "Hot List" calculation is being done in the database using a >> single SQL query. In development, we implemented this query as a Sybase >> stored procedure for maximum efficiency. Since we couldn't find an >> appropriate mapping for this functionality in Informix, we're evaluating >> the >> "Hot List" query like any other SQL statement---which isn't as efficient >> as we'd like. > > I'm not sure what they're getting at here. If all they are doing > is coding a simple select thru a stored procedure, I'm sure > Informix is more than capable of coping. > >> 3. Informix doesn't support any mechanism for limiting the number of >> rows >> fetched by a query (Sybase does this using the "set rowcount" feature). >> This >> is somewhat alarming since some queries could potentially select the >> entire >> database. There isn't a very good workaround for this problem, that I'm >> aware of. > True, Informix always gives you all the rows you ask for. > At this point, I'm getting suspicious of their level of competence. > If they have to rely on restricting the size of a resultant > row set, you'd have to ask how badly designed is their database > model and application(s). > >> The other reasons we're recommending Sybase: >> >> 1. Sybase is case-sensitive, so it won't be mangling our table and >> column >> names like Informix (lowercases everything) and Oracle (uppercases >> everything). Merely annoying, but it's another tidbit in favor of >> Sybase. > > Sybase supports several case models. What happens if it was > configured to be case-insensitive? > >> 2. There are several public domain database access tools for Sybase >> (dsql, >> squish, etc) which are more powerful and user-friendly than the Informix >> alternatives (dbaccess). Again, this is merely an issue of convenience >> during development. > > There are also business rules to deal with and support issues > with public domain programs. Does your organisation allow the > use of unsupported public domain programs? What of issues with > viruses etc. If they weren't allowed to use dsql or sqsh due > to these considerations they'd just be stuck with isql which > is as woeful as dbaccess. > > It seems to me that they are just trying to put up a very weak > case against Informix because they aren't familiar with it. > (But they don't seem to be that much more familiar with Sybase > either.) > >-am -- David Williams Maintainer of the Informix FAQ Primary site (Beta Version) http://www.smooth1.demon.co.uk Official site http://www.iiug.org/techinfo/faq/faq_top.html I see you standin', Standin' on your own, It's such a lonely place for you, For you to be If you need a shoulder, Or if you need a friend, I'll be here standing, Until the bitter end... So don't chastise me Or think I, I mean you harm... All I ever wanted Was for you To know that I care