On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Sander van Zoest wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Matt Sergeant wrote:
>
> > Most modern DBMS software should be able to handle 50 queries per second
> > on decent hardware, provided the conditions are right. You're not going to
> > get anything better with flat files.
>
> Hmm... I guess it all depends on what your queries look like, but you can
> get better results from flat files if you put them in a percise layout.
> Granted if you are talking about having a million lines in a single
> flat file, then I definately agree with you.
I think the limiting factors are quite a bit sooner than a million
lines. What I'm trying to get across is that developers should be
focussing on letting the DBMS do what a DBMS does best - queries. The DB
is far better placed (and generally better developed) to do the
optimisation than trying to come up with a flat file strategy that works
with your system.
> I really think that sometimes going for a flat file layout *can* be much
> more reliable and scalable then RDBMS software. It all really depends on
> what you plan to do with the data and what you would like to get out of
> it.
I think you chose the wrong words there. I think a flat file layout can be
more performant than an RDBMS, but I don't think its going to be
more reliable or scalable than an RDBMS. There are far too many locking
issues and transaction issues necessary for the terms "reliable and
scalable", unless you're willing to spend a few years re-coding Oracle :-)
--
<Matt/>
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