Newbie question about text encoding

[Rustom Mody]

On Monday, March 9, 2015 at 7:39:42 AM UTC+5:30, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> On 07Mar2015 22:09, Steven D'Aprano  wrote:
> >Rustom Mody wrote:
> >>[...big snip...]
> >> Some parts are here some earlier and from my memory.
> >> If details wrong please correct:
> >> - 200 million records
> >> - Containing 4 strings with SMP characters
> >> - System made with python and mysql. SMP works with python, breaks mysql.
> >>   So whole system broke due to those 4 in 200,000,000 records
> >
> >No, they broke because MySQL has buggy Unicode handling.
> [...]
> >> You could also choose do with "astral crap" (Roy's words) what we all do
> >> with crap -- throw it out as early as possible.
> >
> >And when Roy's customers demand that his product support emoji, or complain
> >that they cannot spell their own name because of his parochial and ignorant
> >idea of "crap", perhaps he will consider doing what he should have done
> >from the beginning:
> >
> >Stop using MySQL, which is a joke of a database[1], and use Postgres which
> >does not have this problem.
> >
> >[1] So I have been told.
> 
> I use MySQL a fair bit, and Postgres very slightly. I would agree with your 
> characterisation above; MySQL is littered with inconsistencies and arbitrary 
> breakage, both in tools and SQL implementation. And Postgres has been a pure 
> pleasure to work with, little though I have done that so far.
> 
> Cheers,
> Cameron Simpson
> 
> There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply
> do as I advise. - Gore Vidal

I think that last quote sums up the issue best.
Ive written to Intel asking them to make their next generation have 21-bit wide bytes.
Once they do that we will be back in the paradise we have been for the last 40 years
which I call the 'Unix-assumption'
http://blog.languager.org/2014/04/unicode-and-unix-assumption.html

Until then...

We have to continue living in the real world.
Which includes 10 times more windows than linux users.
Is windows 10 times better an OS than linux?

In the 'real world' people make choices for all sorts of reasons. My guess is the
top reason is the pointiness of the hair of pointy-haired-boss.

Just like people choose  windows over linux, people choose mysql over postgres,
and that's the context of this discussion -- people stuck in sub-optimal choices