Re: Firebird and PostgreSQL at the DB Corral.

Hi all;

Having had some experience with both IB/FB and PgSQL, here is my quick
comparison.  Disclaimer:  I only have basic experience with IB/FB as of 1.0.
If these features are now supported, I will happily admit I am wrong ;-)

1:  Varchar() is not supported.  I.e. all varchar types must have a maximum
length defined.  This can make certain types of applications support
arbitrary limits on input data.

2:  I found stored procedures much harder to work with because the end of
line delimiter had to be changed.

3:  I found that the case sensitivity of the database server to be
unintuitive.

Basically, I found arbitrary limits difficult to work with for applications
requiring lists of text of arbitrary, user (rather than admin) defined
lengths.  F. ex. a CRM app which needs to store text ranging from a hundred
to several thousand characters.  I also found the learning curve steeper
than that of PgSQL.

Other than that, it seems pretty good.  I also like the external table
features, though you could do something similar with Pl/PerlU....

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers