On 28.08.2017 18:19, Darren Duncan wrote:
On 2017-08-28 8:55 AM, p...@cpan.org wrote:
Because of the current situation we in the GoodData company are thinking
about forking DBD::mysql. We use DBI not only with DBD::mysql, but also
with DBD::Pg. The annoying bugs in DBD::mysql still require hacks and
workarounds, while similar bugs were fixed in DBD::Pg years ago. Also,
inability to use the new version of MySQL or MariaDB is a problem. Same
for the open security issues.
I would like to ask, whether somebody else is interested in DBD::mysql
fork? Either as a user or as a developer? Maintaining a fork isn't a
simple task, but with supporting users and contributing developers it
should be easier.
While a fork may be the best short term fix, as keeping up with
security issues is important, I honestly believe that the best fix is
to migrate to Postgres as soon as you can. You already use Pg so the
experience in your company is there. I'd say move all your MySQL
projects to Pg and then you won't have to think about MySQL anymore.
Its not just about the Perl driver, but the differences in
quality/features/etc of the DBMSs themselves. -- Darren Duncan
I would really like to second your statement, and I agree that switching
to Pg would solve a lot of palis problems.
BUT:
MySQL won't go away any time soon. Yes, it is - to be friendly - butt
ugly, and it should be avoided at almost all costs, but it won't go
away. Oracle could not kill it, people crated a new and successful fork
named MariaDB instead of using Pg. Any cheap shared web hoster offers
MySQL or MariaDB. Tons of legacy apps use MySQL or MariaDB, especially
if PHP is also around..
Not being able to connect to MySQL / MariaDB from Perl is not
acceptable. Having tons of known bugs, especially security-related ones,
is as bad. Being forced to take the long detour through DBD::ODBC, an
ODBC driver, and a MySQL / MariaDB ODBC driver is not pretty, and it
won't be faster than the native DBD::mysql driver.
Indentionally breaking DBD::mysql to drive people away from MySQL /
MariaDB wont work. Instead, people will search for another language that
does support connecting to MySQL / MariaDB, like PHP, Python or Java.
And so, they will use MySQL / MariaDB without Perl.
So yes, forking or taking over DBD::mysql developments looks like a good
idea. I would prefer the latter, because that would really solve
problems that people using DBD::mysql currently have. Simply updating
DBD::mysql in the future would fix them, without any need to switch to
another DBD. We should avoid having more than one database driver for
each database, except for optional pure-perl implementations like
DBD::PgPP. That just wastes resources.
Alexander
--
Alexander Foken
mailto:alexan...@foken.de http://www.foken.de/alexander/
