Frank Wiles wrote:
>On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 07:15:41 -0800 (PST)
>Ivelin Ivanov <ivelin@apache.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>>Has this subject been discussed before?
>>I did not find any references to it in the archives.
>>
>>I think that a co-bundle between an open source J2EE
>>container like JBoss and a scalable database like
>>PostgreSQL will be a blast.
>>
>>There are several well performing comercial Java dbs
>>out there and there is Hypersonic which is free and
>>fast, but supports only READ_UNCOMMITED and is build
>>to grow up to ~200MB.
>>
>>
>
> This would be a huge undertaking, rewriting PostgreSQL entirely
> in Java.
>
Very true. I just did a rough count and founs about 510,000 lines of
code in .c and .h files in the source distribution.
>Not to mention it would kill PostgreSQL's current
> speedy performance!
>
>
>
Maybe, maybe not. Modern JVMs have much better performance
characteristics than was once the case. Also, some of the things that
Java buys you (memory management, threading, for example) might actually
enhance performance in some circumstances. A crude port wouldn't work,
though - it would have to be done in such a way as to leverage the
platform's strengths, just as we leverage the strengths of writing in C.
The *big* problem would be keeping a Java port in sync with the base.
That would make it almost impossible to do in a worthwhile way IMNSHO -
the maintenance would be a nightmare.
It would be an excellent student exercise, though :-)
As a Java programmer, I do agree that having a pure Java RDBMS system
would be a Good Thing (tm), and the PostgreSQL code base might be an
excellent place to start creating such a monster :-).
cheers
andrew