I recently installed MySQL 3.23 because it was included with my linux
distribution. HTen i went to mysq.com and found that it is highly
recommended to upgrade to version 5.n. According to what I am going to
do, is it really _necessary_ to upgrade? I know that there is no
support for older versions but I am not going to use any of advanced
features in version 5.n, at least for the moment ( Ihave read about
features like an alternative to ISAM, foreign keys, stored procedures,
....). Would you recommend to upgrade? Is it convenient to upgrade only
to version 4.n? I am more interested in a FAST database than in a
FEATUREFULL database.

Thanks for your advise.

Marco

Marco A. Cruz Quevedo wrote:
> Would you recommend to upgrade? Is it convenient to upgrade only
> to version 4.n? I am more interested in a FAST database than in a
> FEATUREFULL database.

There are some performance improvements in 5.0, but nothing
earth-shattering.

Performance in any database system is highly dependent on the way you
use the database, as well as the technology itself. Just as with a
programming language like Java, C++, or PHP: you can write code that is
better or code that is worse. You have to learn good ways to implement
databases and write queries. See
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/...imization.html and also there
are good books:
"High Performance MySQL" by Zawodny & Balling,
"SQL Performance Tuning" by Gulutzan & Pelzer.

I would recommend upgrading to MySQL 4.1 at least. Earlier versions do
not support subqueries, which are very useful. There are also a bunch
of other features that were introduced in 4.1 (like character sets, and
the stronger password encryption). Upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1 would be
in some ways more troublesome than upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0. So I'd
recommend starting your project using at least version 4.1.

If you use MySQL 4.1 or higher with PHP 4, be aware of the password
compatibility issue. You have to run the MySQL Server with the
"old-passwords" option. See
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/old-client.html
Or you can use PHP 5, which is compatible with the new password
algorithm in MySQL 4.1 and later.

The foreign key support you mention is crucial for designing databases
with referential integrity. It is supported in the InnoDB storage
engine, which is available in all versions of MySQL.

I rarely use most of the features that are promoted as the main
enhancements in MySQL 5, like triggers and stored procedures.

Regards,
Bill K.

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your hints, and I am going to update to MySQL 4.1 as soon
as possible. Also, I am going to check the links you suggested.

Regards

Marco

----------------------
Freedom is not a permission for chaos.

Bill Karwin wrote:
> Marco A. Cruz Quevedo wrote:
> > Would you recommend to upgrade? Is it convenient to upgrade only
> > to version 4.n? I am more interested in a FAST database than in a
> > FEATUREFULL database.
>
> There are some performance improvements in 5.0, but nothing
> earth-shattering.
>
> Performance in any database system is highly dependent on the way you
> use the database, as well as the technology itself. Just as with a
> programming language like Java, C++, or PHP: you can write code that is
> better or code that is worse. You have to learn good ways to implement
> databases and write queries. See
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/...imization.html and also there
> are good books:
> "High Performance MySQL" by Zawodny & Balling,
> "SQL Performance Tuning" by Gulutzan & Pelzer.
>
> I would recommend upgrading to MySQL 4.1 at least. Earlier versions do
> not support subqueries, which are very useful. There are also a bunch
> of other features that were introduced in 4.1 (like character sets, and
> the stronger password encryption). Upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1 would be
> in some ways more troublesome than upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0. So I'd
> recommend starting your project using at least version 4.1.
>
> If you use MySQL 4.1 or higher with PHP 4, be aware of the password
> compatibility issue. You have to run the MySQL Server with the
> "old-passwords" option. See
> http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/old-client.html
> Or you can use PHP 5, which is compatible with the new password
> algorithm in MySQL 4.1 and later.
>
> The foreign key support you mention is crucial for designing databases
> with referential integrity. It is supported in the InnoDB storage
> engine, which is available in all versions of MySQL.
>
> I rarely use most of the features that are promoted as the main
> enhancements in MySQL 5, like triggers and stored procedures.
>
> Regards,
> Bill K.