> Rich Pieri wrote on 2026-01-24 19:29: > >>> It's fine for web apps, but email messages (and medical records!) >>> are a bit more important. >> >> I have to wonder how you missed the part about MUMPS being designed >> at MGH specifically for medical records. > > I didn't miss it. > > > I'm disputing that technical choices made *sixty* years ago are 100% the > best choice to make today and that DBs are "the WORST possible way to > store arbitrary files" (and that email means "files").
Classic databases are a poor choice for arbitrary data. They are not designed for that work flow. That is irrefutable. There are some very good object databases designed for that work flow, rocksdb by facebook (based on LevelDB). As for decisions made 60 years ago, like I have said, I don't think age of technology necessarily implies it is not good. We still use transistors, the computers work pretty much the same way. If you want to discuss networking, solid state drives, gigabytes of ram, and clock speeds in the ghz, we can see many of the design decisions hold up, and some don't. It isn't about age. > > > Sixty years ago rockets were used once and discarded. Crazy, right? We still have single use rockets. We also have multiple use rockets. You need to remember our space program was derivative of Nazi germany's missile program, Werner Von Braun. There wasn't much call for multi-use rockets. > > > >> What I can say is that >> 60 years of MUMPS succeeding where others fail speaks for itself. > Gmail stores email in databases. "Speaks for itself" in my books. Gmail stores email messages in a custom object storage system with docs, videos, etc. It uses a custom SQL database for the other stuff. > > > I *did* say attachments as files seems reasonable if syncing files with > DB entries is considered, but I'd defer to the developers on the topic. > > > Surely both methods can be made to work quite well by skilled devs? You can make a lot of things work, but a classic ACID/MVCC database is a very poor choice for arbitrary data. > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
