OT: why are LAMP sites slow?

[Brian Beck]

> Refactoring a database on a live system is a giant pain in the ass,
> simpler file-based approaches make incremental updates easier.
> 
> The Wikipedia example has been thrown around, I haven't looked at the
> code either;  except for search why would they need a database to
> look up an individual WikiWord?  Going to the database requires reading
> an index when pickle.load(open('words/W/WikiWord')) would seem sufficient.

I'm not so sure about this. If whatever is at, for example, 
words/W/WikiWord is just the contents of the entry, sure. But what about 
all the metadeta that goes along with that record? If you were to add a 
new field that is mandatory for all word records, you'd have to traverse 
the words directory and update each file, and that would require your 
own home-spun update scripts (of questionable quality). Worse, if the 
modifications are conditional.

As much as I hate working with relational databases, I think you're 
forgetting the reliability even the most poorly-designed database 
provides. Continuing with the words example: assuming all words would 
otherwise be stored in a table, consider the process of updating the 
database schema--all entries are guaranteed to conform to the new 
schema. With separate files on a filesystem, there is a much higher 
chance of malformed or outdated entries. Of course, this all depends on 
how reliable your implementation is, but consider which aspect you'd 
rather leave open to experimentation: loss of data integrity and 
possibly even data itself, or speed and efficiency?

--
Brian Beck
Adventurer of the First Order