Managing large files

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

"Ian Lewis" <ianmlewis at gmail.com> writes:

>> > Okay Derek, being just a dumb user I'm puzzled.
>> >
>> > If "save on commit" is really the only advantage to going to a SQL, then
>> why
>> > are SQL's so popular? I mean, they're bloody huge! I run postgreSQL;
>> just
>> > the DB management software is like 15M; and every database created is
>> about
>> > 1.5M in size just to give the software the room it needs to "manage the
>> > database".
>> >
>> > If there's no speed advantage between, say 20,000 transactions stored in
>> an
>> > XML flat file and the same 20,000 stored in an SQL, then what's all that
>> > software bloody doing other than playing traffic cop for multiple users?
>> > :confused:
>>
>>
>> you don't have to load all 20,000 txns into memory, for one, all you
>> have to do is open access to the DB, I guess.
>
>
> Indexing is another advantage, though it seems that the different database
> implementations and GDA backend seem to help/hinder performance in different
> ways, as is the ability of other database programs, maybe reporting
> software, etc. to read your gnucash data.

GnuCash itself wont use an RDBMS as a real DB, but rather it'll just
use it as a data store, just like any other data store.  IOW, GnuCash
will still want to load all the records into memory every time.  This
is just the way GnuCash/QOF currently works, so comparing it to a "real
DB App" just isn't a fair comparison because, frankly, GnuCash ISNT
a "real DB App".

> Ian

> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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