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Open Source and Databases
Slides from my OpenDBCamp keynote (Froscon track)
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schema free database
I have worked with databases on and off from mid70ties (mySQL since 2001). Now I'm struggling to learn NOSql databases. The weakest link i found so far is the absence of a unifying access language. We also use Lotus Notes which have a NOSql database (so I'm told). The biggest criticism against Lotus Notes at my company is 'we do not have any control over the data in there'. IT-managers before and after me have tried to document the data but failed. Now while learning about NOSql I suspect the 'schema-free' is if not the root cause one 'feature' that makes it hard to control the data in LN databases. Right now I have problems to see the benefits of NOSql. MApReduce is great but it is not unique to NOSql. I run MapReduce procedures against network databases in the early 80ties. I also implemented a mapReduce scheme against MySQL (e.g. reconstructing BOM trees from a SAP system). And if you think SQL is complicated, you should probably do something else than creating NOSql mapReduce procedures in Erlang.
But I admit the replicating features of couchDB is very interesting.
The thing that's different
The thing that's different now compared to previous attempts at "database without SQL interface" is that we have a standard serialization format across programming languages: JSON. I think it's a contributing reason to why they are succeeding - you get the benefits of being schemaless but you can actually understand what's in there and it's accessible with any language, many clients.