Re: [GNUe] packages?

[Jason Cater]

>
> Actually, I've read this a lot of times. Still, MySQL is very popular and
> then, have a lot of good documentation and 3:rd party tools. 
>

I'm not going to get into a MySQL-vs-<insert other favorites here> flamewar 
[at least in this thread :) ], but I would like to address a few points with 
the list. This isn't targeted to the originator of this email, just to the 
list in general.

1. Using MySQL with GNUe Forms is not the same as using MySQL with a web 
frontend. GNUe Forms "can" work without underlying transaction support, but 
the way Forms can touch multiple tables in one pass, this could be a painful 
process for everyone involved (end developers, end users, etc.)  With any 
somewhat complicated form, you can quickly put your database in an 
inconsistent state.  This isn't as big a deal with some web applications.

So, if using MySQL with GNUe Forms, please consider at least using MySQL 4.x 
with transaction support turned on.  (cf., http://www.innodb.com/ibman.php)

Note that transaction support is irrelevant if not updating the database -- 
i.e., when using GNUe Reports, etc. 

2. We really *do* want people testing/using MySQL. As is evident by the bug 
reports on this mailing list, our MySQL support does need more work. We hit a 
lot of shortcomings with MySQL and have to address them individually. This is 
somewhat frustrating for us, but as the original poster said, MySQL *is* a 
popular database. But just be prepared to have to work with us on getting the 
kinks out.

That said, if you are wanting to just install GNUe to test it out, I would not 
recommend demoing our tools against a MySQL database at this time. For 
testing purposes, PostgreSQL and Firebird would be my first choices, 
respectively, since core developers use these.