
NoSQL, meh - rayvega
http://www.agmweb.ca/blog/andy/2254/
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andrewvc
Basically, he used to use Zope, and didn't like that you needed to instantiate
an object to get it out of the DB. Then he complains his coworkers had some
kind of ambiguous problem with this that only the author was smart enough to
solve, then the author recognizes that this isn't at all a problem with modern
NoSQL solutions (unless you want it to be).

Color me confused, what was the point of this diatribe? ZODB sucks? His
coworkers suck because they only understand SQL? NoSQL might suck because ZODB
sucks?

For the record, SQL is a beast, and far from intuitive. I hardly think most
NoSQL is too hard for the masses (for that matter considering that NoSQL
encompasses so many different techs its hard to say anything about NoSQL as a
group), it sounds like no one at his shop wanted to really learn another DB
since they could just ask this guy to help them out.

~~~
ntoshev
He is just saying that existing mindshare and support tools matter a lot, and
it's a week spot for NoSql.

~~~
andrewvc
That may be, but all the specific shortcomings he mentioned in the article are
definitely _not_ there with CouchDB, which he specifically mentions. The futon
(builtin) interface to Couch solves every one of the gripes he mentions with
ZODB.

I feel like the author may have a point, somewhere, but not in this article,
which feels off the cuff, and just isn't really a well constructed argument
about anything.

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cmelbye
So, because he used a horrible "NoSQL" system years ago, the NoSQL concept now
is going to be the same. Is it just me, or is the quality of HN links going
down?

~~~
alnayyir
Yes, next question?

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timmorgan
A good reminder for us who haven't been around as long, ideas and tech tend to
come full circle.

Hopefully this time around, the tools are better and the limitations are well-
known (and I think they are).

[edit] I think I misused the term "come full circle" -- I meant something more
like oscillation.

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fauigerzigerk
I don't think he explains the issues very well even though he mentions some of
the symptoms.

A common characteristic of NoSQL systems is that they don't use a normalised
schema. That has certain scalability benefits and in a few cases it may be
easier to understand. But it also means that there are going to be
redundancies and that the database itself does not check consistency.

So not being able to use a generic tool to change some piece of data is not
down to immature tools or lack of knowledge, it's a fundamental characteristic
of denormalised data structures.

