Fwd: MySQL vs postgres

[awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>Does anyone know the main difference between these two SQL 
implementations?

MySQL is not even close to SQL-92 compliance.
MySQL lacks any real locking mechanism.
MySQL lacks transacions (An "Oh, my God!" scale problem).
MySQL doesn't do views, constraints, and a whole lot else (last I 
knew).

>(MySQL and Postgres) Because I've been studiing MySQL for about about 
three
>weeks now ... and I've come across a SQL construct that MySQL does 
not

Only one!!!!

>support ..... which is views ....... I know nothing about postgress 
but I'm
>wondering is postgres more SQL-92 compliant than MySQL? I really like 
MySQL

PostgreSQL IS SQL-92 compliant as of the current release.  Everything 
you want (and some more is there).  Contraints, views, clusters, 
unions, transactions, row level locking, BLOBS, user definable data 
types, etc....

>but I want to stay with the most compliant SQL implementation (at 
least
>while I'm in process of learning SQL). Thank you.

Yes, and several other reasons too.  Use PostgreSQL, it is the only 
"real" free database I have found.  I spend a fair amount of time 
wearing a DBA hat for an Informix DB (which very much ain't free), and 
I go home and work in PostgreSQL and my SQL just works, and I have 
never felt the itch too shuck out tens of thousands of dollars.

P.S. When you start the PostgreSQL server process ("postmaster") 
assign it more shared memory with the "-B" options, use the "-F" 
option to permit caching in the file system or performance will STINK. 
 Also you need the "-i" option if you want to talk to the engine via 
TCP/IP (vs. IPC on the same machine).  You might need to raise the 
default shared memory limit by echo-ing a value into 
/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax.  It's in the "Performance Tuning" 
presentation on the KLUG server.  Since PostgreSQL is a "real" 
database, it does require you to be a little more of a "real" DBA.