Persistence design [was: RE: OT: why are LAMP sites slow?]

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:46:44 -0500, Jack Diederich <jackdied at jackdied.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 10:31:19AM -0800, Robert Brewer wrote:
> > Jack Diederich wrote:
> > > If there is interest I'll follow up with some details on my own LAMP
> > > software which does live reports on gigs of data and - you
> > > guessed it -
> > > I regret it is database backed.  That story also involves why
> > > I started
> > > using Python (the prototype was in PHP).
> >
> > I'd be interested, if only selfishly to hear more potential use cases
> > for *my* projects. ;)
> 
> It would be long so I'll spin it into a blog piece.  They seem to be
> all the rage these days *0.5 wink*

A blog piece of yours truly :-) (call it a blatant plug if you want)

http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com/2004/11/alternative-database-systems.html

"""
There was a time when a database meant a flat file, fixed record
repository. Indexes were added later, bringing better performance for
several tasks. During the sixties, hierarchical database systems were
developed, allowing to model complex real-life structures better. Even
today, old-style mainframe systems (such as IBM's IMS) are still in
production, managing huge databases. SQL was only invented in the
seventies, based on a mathematical formalization of high-level data
manipulation algorithms. Batch processing systems read and process
data in a sequential fashion, and normally do not need such
abstractions. But the new generation interactive systems really needed
them. And when PC-based client-server computing exploded in the 90's,
SQL kingdom was started.
"""
...
"""
In the middle of this, there is a unforeseen trend in the use of the
file system as a storage medium. Yes, the file system. Guess what?
Forget the FAT, please. Current file systems are much more stable and
efficient than older ones. Modern filesystems are hierarchical, and
can store arbitrary objects. Support for journaling, and better
metadata management means that the filesystem is now a better choice
for many situations. Several web publishing engines (blogs, wikis, and
even full-fledged content management systems) support filesystem-based
storage for text notes and documents, which were previously stored (in
a hackish and haphazardous way) into DB blobs. The full filename is
now a primary key, and flexible relationships between entities can be
expressed as hiperlinks.
"""

I'm (slowly) designing a personal CMS that is intended to use
Subversion as its backend, for both blog & wiki style entries. It's
filesystem based, fast (the website can use the working copy for
nearly everything) and allows for versioning - something that its
difficult to implement properly with low-end RDBMSs. It looks
promising :-)

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com