MyISAM vs. InnoDB

[Tekime]

I've been researching the difference between the two MySQL table types as we implement a potentially high scale app over the summer. InnoDB seems to offer a lot of benefits, at the sacrifice of greater disk space usage. InnoDB allows foreign key constraints, cascading, row-level locking, great access times, even hot backups and some other stuff.

Just wondering what you guys are using and for what applications. I'm seriously looking at InnoDB due to potentially huge size of the database, and the concurrent multi-user environment. I've used MyISAM for 98% of my MySQL work previously.

[Packetrat]

Dude, I don't even pretend to know that much about computer stuff. I had an entire class discussion about what kinds of database designs are better back in college, but I really can't say that I remember it or have been involved with anything where I might need to put that knowledge to work... sorry

[Tekime]

You don't need to apologize, just curious if anyone else has gotten into this. I've actually done some research in the past, but never actually implemented it as I don't see the need.

MySQL v 4+ is a hell of a lot better though. Combined with InnoDB tables it can handle some huge frigging tablespaces from what I see. The limitation is more the OS/platform than the DBMS, which is a good sign..

*edit: Or rather, didn't see the need. I'm using InnoDB now in one application, but honestly I don't see any difference performance-wise; as it haven't done extensive load-testing yet. But creating foreign keys is nice, and I can use MySQL explorer to create ER diagrams which is one thing MySQL is lacking.

[Technophile]

Don't look at me, we're still on Access here.

[Tekime]

Haha.

Well with Access you don't have any choice of table types anyway. As much as a bad rap as Access gets, it's pretty nice though. What other package will let a total n00b create a database for their biz?

Of course, given the number of Access databases I've seen created by n00bs, you usually end up having to rewrite them CORRECTLY and costing your business thousands in the process, but hey... it can be a start

[Packetrat]

When I first started databases, i thought Access was the shiznit. You could do all this stuff and not have to know much... then I learned about entity relationships and normal forms and cardinalities and Access seemed to wane a bit in comparison to other DBs. Then, after scripting a few PHP/MySQL apps, I realized Access and VBA were my worst nightmare. After scripting two Access databases for real businesses as part of my degree program, I wanted nothing more than to move on to MySQL and Oracle. It seems - perhaps not so surprisingly - that the more I learn about Information Systems, the less appealing Microsoft software seems to be. However, Word and Excel don't seem to be all that bad.

[Tekime]

Hehe..

Originally Posted by Packetrat

...However, Word and Excel don't seem to be all that bad.

Give OpenOffice.org a whirl - it's pretty damn polished these days. Has a drop-in replacement for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and honestly you're hard pressed to find anything OpenOffice can't do, that Office can. Plus saving your documents to PDF on the fly is pretty sweet too. You can even edit Office formats like .DOC!

[Packetrat]

Yeah, I use OpenOffice. The only thing I can complain about is that someone needs to reinterface it with QT... not that it is necessary at all. I really like the fact that OOo is "one application." You have to wonder how much of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. is redundant core.

[Tekime]

Awesome.. I'm just starting to play with the Presentation application too. Seems pretty decent so far.

I don't know a damn thing about how Office manages its internal resources, but if it's anything like Microsoft it's probably overkill.