Get yourself accustomed to the FireBird database under Linux with this intro article.
Firebird Database on Linux
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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This is a really good database. I use it for a small app for win32. It’s lightweigth, but fully featured. (transactions, triggers, etc).
My biggest question is: will there be php modules for it?
It was about time. I’ve been using Firebird for a long time. Every time someone came to me and asked my opinion about databases and which one would I advise, I would immediatly say Firebird. But then, they would ask me where could they get more information… I could only say the FB site itself and the documentation on Interbase. It was about time an article like this would come out.
There are modules for PHP. There have allways been. They’re the same modules of interbase. Just enable the Interbase modules in PHP and you will have support for firebird also, as they are kind of the same database (Firebird is a fork from Interbase 6.0, it retains compatibility).
Once upon a time we used interbase 5.x (I think)
Was a reasonable product, feature wise, EXCEPT IT KEPT CORRUPTING. Records would corrupt and we needed to keep a backup of the last stable version, despite reinstalling from scratch, etc.
On that basis I wouldn’t recommend interbase to anyone. I’m interested to hear whether firebird has fixed these problems.
>> “On that basis I wouldn’t recommend interbase to anyone.
>> I’m interested to hear whether firebird has fixed these
>> problems”
Yes, those problems have been corrected in Firebird, a long time ago. They have even corrected that “backdoor password problem” Interbase had.
“On that basis I wouldn’t recommend interbase to anyone. I’m interested to hear whether firebird has fixed these problems.”
if i remember there was a problem with
forced writes and it was off ! for speed reasons
Now you can set it to on .
Win32 Forced Writes Default = ON Feature – Added v1.0
With the introduction of IB 6.0 the default settings for newly created databases, under Win32, was changed to OFF. This change was made to improve database performance but at the expense of database integrity/recovery.
I would love to see a comparison (speed, features) of firebird and postgresql databases…
>I would love to see a comparison (speed, features) of firebird and postgresql databases…
This is a good ideea . It could be interesting with the v1.5
maybe we should do an article about that . I don’t promise
anything yet . Both have strong points and is fair comparision
But is not about Firebird vs PostgreSQL vs MySql , i think
open source databases should be United against propietary
database world : mssql, oracle . The big unified dream
is that one day we goona eat them pie (conquer the world you know
)
>But is not about Firebird vs PostgreSQL vs MySql , i think
>open source databases should be United against propietary
>database world : mssql, oracle . The big unified dream
>is that one day we goona eat them pie (conquer the world
>you know
)
I don’t believe this would work. We all saw what is happening to United Linux which is falling apart. Every database has it’s pros and cons, but this is because no database fits all purposes. What mathers is to choose right. If they all unite, we wouldn’t have anything to choose from.
Cya all
As far as I can recall, here are the major differences between Firebird and PostgreSQL:
Firebird Pros:
1. Firebird has a native Windows version. PostgreSQL is still working on this.
2. Firebird has a production-ready replication system. PostgreSQL is still working on the open-source replication system, which should be production-ready soon. (meanwhile, there are existing commercial replication systems)
3. Firebird has an extremely small footprint. The main download is only about 2.5 MB. I consider it quite an accomplishment to have such a complete SQL/relational implementation in a small package like this.
PostgreSQL Pros:
1. Longer development history. PostgreSQL is actually one of the longer open source projects out there, stemming from a long-running commercial/research project (Ingres), and then being made open-source in the early 90s. It is quite possibly the most stable piece of software I have ever seen.
2. Deeper theoretical foundation. Some of you may roll your eyes at this one, but PostgreSQL has some logical/theoretical advantages I have not seen in any other DBMS, period. It is _very_ open and extensible, with user-defined types (even “complex” types), operators, procedural languages, etc… Everything about your database is preserved in PostgreSQL internal tables, which you can query, and even alter at your disgression. Also, PostgreSQL has an interesting extension called the RULE system, which is to SQL what mod_rewrite is to HTTP ;-). (Allows for greater decoupling of logic/physical storage, as well as enforcing business rules in the database)
3. In general, I believe that PostgreSQL supports a richer set of SQL types and functions (especially the great INTERVAL type), but I haven’t had time to go through all the latest Firebird documentation. You can compare PostgreSQL 7.2 to Interbase 6 (which is almost the same thing as Firebird), with MySQL’s “crash-me” suite — http://www.mysql.com/information/features.html
Other than these differences, PostgreSQL and Firebird seem to have largely similar abilities. Each has a substantial subset of SQL-92 and SQL-99 capabilities. I don’t know anything about how they compare in performance, though. anyone care to comment there?
I meant “discretion”, not “disgression”, which is not a word. But, I digress… 😉
How would I use FB with Perl 5.8?
http://dbi-interbase.sourceforge.net/
“The DBI is a database interface module for Perl. It defines a set of methods, variables and conventions that provide a consistent database interface independent of the actual database being used.”
The evolution of the OpenSource programs is incredible when there is a selection to choose from. Oracle and IBM are slowly learning this by supporting Linux.
Yes I think it was something like forced writes.
Good to hear these problems are fixed. Must check it out sometime.
I wonder how functional their JDBC driver is…
Man JDBC rocks on firebird .One of the JDBC driver maintainer
works also at JBoss (as a developer) :
The Firebird Class 4 JCA-JDBC driver :
http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_jaybird