Re: [chat] Postgres

[Ben Leslie <benjl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Peter Faulks wrote:

> On Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:58, Ben Leslie wrote:
> > > I'm finally getting around to looking at Postgres, and I have to say I
> > > _dont_ like the idea of the global object id. This implies a connection
> > > between different databases which IMO simply should not exist.
> >
> > They are internal structures. It is really irrelevant from a design point
> > of view. You use it like you would any other database by creating id fields
> > in each record for creating relations.
> 
> Agreed of course you still need your own primary/foreign key setup. What I 
> dislike about the global id is it means that a database has to be 'built' 
> where it is being hosted, ie you cannot move a database by simply copying the 
> files.

Yeah sure, but I don't think most database can be moved simply like that. I mean
at least some databases use a raw disk interface, so you don't have any files
to backup anyway.

Postgres offers a dump and restore facility to allow moving a database.

 
> My experience with databases is limited to single user desktop applications 
> (Where I found Sybase SQL Anywhere ideal), and I guess it is a paradigm shift 
> into the world of database 'farms', but I still feel that if you want a link 
> between different databases, it should be a feature designed into the 
> database structures, not build into the database engine.

Simple just don't use it :). I don't see the problem, it isn't _restricting_
what you do.
 
> Consider a web co-hosting scenerio, your database has nothing to do with the 
> other dozens or hundreds of databases managed on a host. And nor should it.

You will generally have seperate postgres servers running for each customer.
Each postgres installation shares other things as well, such as users. And even
still you could still have multi dbs, you can't go linking just any arbitrary table
in you db to another persons.

Still I really don't see the problem, each record has an object id it is 
64bit (iirc) and the fact that it is unique across multiple database is really 
irrelevant.

Ben