The "dead horse" I'm referring to is XML, it's come up quite a few times :)
The major advantage to flat files is that you don't have the MySQL overhead.
However, you have to remember a few things. You will have to implement a
key structure similiar to MySQL's to get the performance your getting now.
This isn't something that's just quick and easy. The need of a key comes in
when you have large text files. Opening and scanning through the entire
contents of a 5 meg text file can take some time, you need to have a smaller
key file that can let you point to a specific offset in the file using a
search criteria so that you can open the file to that point. The
development time it would take to implement this is rather large.
Another key advantage to flat files is the 100% freedom in how you use them.
The drawback to this advantage is that nearly anything you want to do with
the flat files has to be 100% developed by the developer. And it's no
simple task.
Hope some of this information can help you out. I'm sure there are other
advantages/disadvantages to using flat files that others will be able to
point out. Those are just the two biggies that were on the top of my head.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Coon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Eric Fitzgerald'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 4:48 PM
Subject: RE: MySQL and XML?
>
> What are the advantages of flat files? I am having no speed issues at
> all... in fact Im quite happy to stay with MySQL. But my boss is loaded
> with ideas you see, so I have to be able to justify why mysql is better
than
> flat files.
>
> Thanks for the response, feel free to kick the dead horse one more time :)
>
> Bryan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Fitzgerald [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 4:43 PM
> To: Bryan Coon; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: MySQL and XML?
>
>
> Well list, I think we have a new weekly dead horse to with which to use
our
> sticks on :)
>
> To answer your question, no, XML is not being added currently to MySQL.
> Flat files have some advantages, but have to be implented well to work
well,
> you can't just open the whole thing and scan through it looking for what
you
> need. MySQL is fast, very fast. If your current implentation is having
no
> speed issues, then don't fix what isn't broken. If you are having speed
> issues, I would suggest you give us some examples of your table layouts so
> that we can see if maybe you have some innefecient key usage.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bryan Coon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 2:23 PM
> Subject: MySQL and XML?
>
>
> >
> > Can anyone offer some insight into the following topic?
> >
> > I would like to provide web access to search a large database of
> > information. Currently, I am using MySQL to do this, and it works
great.
> > However, this database is almost entirely static, there are virtually no
> > inserts or updates done.
> >
> > For accessing information with this structure, is an RDBM the most
> efficient
> > way to search through this information? I know Oracle has been modified
> to
> > use XML files as the database, making queries directly to a flat file
> > (although I have not seen it in action).
> >
> > Does MySQL support anything of this nature, or is anyone working on any
> > module along these lines? What is the advantage for using a flat file?
I
> > am fairly new to this kind of thing, I would like to learn more.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
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>
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