Foreign keys / Transactions in MySQL.. WTF?

[Ovid]

--- Toby Corkindale <tjc at wintrmute.net> wrote:

> How did MySQL get so popular when it still seems to be missing key
> features? Ah, I shouldn't ask that, it's just gonna be trolling :)

Too late :)

Like PHP, MySQL is a rather gentle and incomplete introduction to its
arena.  People value ease of use more than correctness.  Lotus Notes
was in the Interface Hall of Shame because of how miserable its
interface was[1] and yet developers wrote nasty emails to the people
who put up that page trying to explain that people were just misusing
their software (which says a lot about the misunderstandings in the
mind of Lotus Notes developers).  Hell, this is why there's a lot of
great software on the CPAN which no one will use:  it's impenetrable.

Combine MySQL's ease of use with the unfortunate fact that many
developers mistakenly believe that being an SQL god makes them one-step
removed from DBAs and the result is predictable.

Cheers,
Ovid

[1] In the case of Lotus Notes in the late 90s, correctness wasn't a
key feature, either.  See:

  http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/lotus.htm

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