RE: why no stored procedures?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Wieck [mailto:JanWieck@Yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 10:51 PM
> To: roypgsqlgen@xemaps.com
> Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] why no stored procedures?
>
> roypgsqlgen@xemaps.com wrote:
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > Is there any reason why there are no stored procedures for
> postgresql or
> > does this have to do with the ability to add your own procedural
> > language?
>
>     What   exactly   do  you  mean  with  "there  are  no  stored
>     procedures"?
>
>     I mean, we have more  procedural  languages  than  any  other
>     database  and  with  the  upcoming  v7.2  we  will  even have
>     reference cursors for PL/pgSQL to pass them into and  out  of
>     functions. So could you detail your question please?Jan,

In the world of Oracle, SQL Server and Sybase, a stored procedure accepts
and returns multiple parameters.  In SQL Server and Sybase, you can also
return result sets very easily.  Oracle also has a way for stored procedures
to return result sets though in my opinion, it's a rather clumsy
implementation.

Stored procedures on those databases get compiled the first time they run
and are stored compiled for use again later.  Interbase does this too.

From what I understand, postgresql does not have any of this available to
it.  It has procedural languages available to it, but not 'stored
procedures'.  Functions are fine, but only being able to return one
parameter is going to hurt performance since I will have to run more select
statements from the client side to get any other info that my function might
have changed.  Plus, from what I read, functions aren't compiled ahead of
time either.

At this point its a toss up for my company between interbase and postgresql
(or GOOD GOD MSDE!).  I read somewhere that interbase is missing a lot of
features that postgresql has, but the fact that it has stored procedures is
really attractive to my company.  I would like to go with postgresql, but
I've been trying to figure out how I would do what I currently do in stored
procedures limited to functions and select statements.  We also have many
nested transactions so that might hurt as well.

Can someone please point me to a page that compares the features of
interbase to postgresql?  I heard interbase is missing key functions like
CASE and other such things.  But I really can't find any documentation on
that sort of thing.

Greatly appreciated,
Roy.