in reply to Website Application Framework with Sybase, Apache & Perl: My Thoughts

At the risk of intruding upon what looks like a personal communiqué to mpeppler...

...this convenience and wealth of functionality in Perl has resulted in a decrease in ability to leverage the shell as well as a duplication of its functionality. (emphasis mine)

What functionality is no longer available such that one is no longer able to write code in this manner? Or do you mean that in the community of developers fewer people are skilled in shell scripting? What is the evidence for this, and why does it matter even if it is true? Why shouldn't one prefer to use Perl rather than an OS specific script?

Also, because so much is available within Perl, one tends to write modules to compentize complex apps instead of isolated shell scripts.

People componentize applications into modules because doing so significantly increases reusability and benefit from Perl's portability.

I would hate to have to recode all of my stored procedures whenever tables change

Changing your tables is neither a minor nor everyday activity. You must expect that changes at such a fundamental level will have cascading effects, and allocate proper time/resources to dealing with them; certainly anyway if you are attempting to utilize database optimizations like stored procedures (although IANASPE (stored procedures expert) :)

is it conceivable that the stored procedures could tax the RAM of the database server?

RAM is generally consumed by data structures, not procedures. I think you would require truly vast numbers of them to impact memory performance.

In sum, if your database server is a Pentium 133 and you change your table schemas with unusual frequency in a software package guaranteed only to run on *nix, then I can see where you're coming from. Otherwise, I think you're overly concerned with bottlenecks and maintenance issues in the wrong places.

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Re: Re: Website Application Framework with Sybase, Apache & Perl: My Thoughts
by mpeppler (Vicar) on Dec 18, 2002 at 21:44 UTC
    Changing your tables is neither a minor nor everyday activity. You must expect that changes at such a fundamental level will have cascading effects...
    Exactly. DDL schema changes aren't a trivial operation - their effect should be assessed across the entire system (i.e. from the database to the client code). By using stored procedure some schema changes can be hidden from the client code.

    is it conceivable that the stored procedures could tax the RAM of the database server?
    RAM is generally consumed by data structures, not procedures. I think you would require truly vast numbers of them to impact memory performance.
    It should also be noted that the vast majority of Sybase sites run on pretty hefty hardware, and even those that run on linux or WinNT tend to have in excess of 1GB of RAM available to the database server (which doesn't mean that memory should be wasted, of course).

    Michael

[reply]
      At a certain level of experience in Application design, I see two different "influences":
      1. Application Programmer
      2. DBA

      The application programmer likes to keep control in the application, putting DML and DDL in the application, and the DBA influence who likes to keep control in the database..

      I personally see the merits of both sides, and, depending on the strength of the DBA's at the site I'm working at, would prefer the DBA control method..

      I'm wondering what camp you're coming from? .. ;-)

[reply]
        I'm wondering what camp you're coming from? .. ;-)

        Both!
        Seriously though I've mostly worked as a developer for the last 8 years or so, and I've only recently taken up jobs as pure DBA gigs. But I've seen the damage an inconsiderate query can have on a production database too many times, hence the need for controlled access to a resource that if misused will affect not only this one instance but all the other users as well.

        Michael

[reply]
Re: Re: Website Application Framework with Sybase, Apache & Perl: My Thoughts
by princepawn (Parson) on Dec 20, 2002 at 15:36 UTC
    Why shouldn't one prefer to use Perl rather than an OS specific script?
    That's a good point. Just take the wisdom of Unix and put it in Perl so that people can use it on other OSes.

    Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality

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