On 0, Carel Fellinger <cfelling@iae.nl> wrote: > On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 12:42:58AM -0700, Brian wrote: > ... > > Finally, if you are going to start using databases, you may as well use > > Postgresql because it is a database you can grow into. > > I too need a database, but for huge amount of information, think of > three annotated natural language dictionaries:) > > The nice thing of PostgresSQL is that you have a powerfull query > language, so you don't have to program each and every usage. But.. > > ...the disadvantage is that you have to use that query language. You > see, those dicts are to be used in a natural language translation > system, so *fast* access is essential in that particular usage, and > that access is rather simplistic, just retrieve the entry on a single > key, so there the power (and overhead) of SQL queries is not needed. > > So the big question is: > > Does anyone know whether it's possible to bypass the SQL layer in > PostgresSQL? > > I've read that mySQL is based on Berkely db, so there it should be > possible, but people seem to like Postgres better, and I certainly > want to make it a bit more future proof this time around (the program > has been ported with the usual problems al least 3 times before:). I don't think this is necessary. By far the majority of time in a query is actually digging through the data and reading it off the disk. Parsing the SQL and determining a query plan are fairly quick by comparison (on any largish database, anyway). So the fact that SQL is being used is not really significant. And if you put an index on the fields you are querying then the query is fast. Don't use mySql. Eventually you will want transactions, or some real multi-user capabilities, or real scalability. Also PostgreSQL is a lot closer to Oracle SQL, IIRC. In fact, if you want enormous databases with good query speed, why not use Oracle? It is free for development (on Linux, at least - not sure about Sun or 'doze). It will cater for all your needs... Tom -- Tom Cook Information Technology Services, The University of Adelaide "That you're not paranoid does not mean they're not out to get you." - Robert Waldner
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