[sakai2-tcc] [Building Sakai] The myth of schemas (was: Assignments...)

[Steve Swinsburg]

I think you need to understand that there are complex systems that are
designed well and that don't suffer from the problems you describe.
I never said relational databases are a hindrance. They are great. But
there are times when a non relational model can be better suited. And when
done right, it works well.

S


On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 2:50 AM, David Adams <da1 at vt.edu> wrote:

> Steve Swinsburg wrote:
> > You may not have got the gist of my earlier comments, but I was
> > agreeing with you.
>
> I did get that, but I think a lot of the poor technical decisions in
> the Sakai community going back to CHEF days and continuing most
> spectacularly into the OAE project is wrapped up in this idea that
> relational databases are a hinderance to be gotten around however
> possible. Your comments reinforced that false idea, and I think
> it's important to address them to avoid the continued unquestioned
> acceptance of that idea within this community.
>
> I called your claims poisonous because the idea that there's some
> magic easy path to deal with data storage, sorting, searching, and
> collating is very tempting, and every time someone claims that
> "technology X *never* has problem Y that relational databases
> suffer from", there are a hundred readers out there who take that to
> heart. But it's not true. The problems are the same, no matter what
> storage mechanism you use. If they manifest in slightly different
> ways, that may be a fact you can use to your advantage depending on
> your system design, but schema changes are part of every system.
>
> For any non-trivial data, there is a schema implicit in both the data
> and the code. And for any non-trivial system, schema transitions will
> be required. I would argue that non-trivial schema transitions can be
> *much* harder on non-RDBMS systems. We only have to look at all the
> work expended in the OAE project on its own schema changes for evidence.
>
> -dave
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