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SQL might be the right choice in many or even most situations, but I'm really skeptical whenever somebody says there's a "default choice" in technology. Every s

SQL might be the right choice in many or even most situations, but I'm really skeptical whenever somebody says there's a "default choice" in technology. Every system has certain strengths and weaknesses compared to others. If you're only reaching for one technology choice without first assessing the project in context with all of the tradeoffs involved, I don't think you're doing things right.

tracker1 4y ago
I'd say that A SQL variation is probably the right first choice for most software projects where server stored data is involved. As much as I enjoy other options (Mongo, Cassandra, BigTable, Dynamo, etc) in different scenarios. A lot of this will come down to many developers do use SQL first... Especially in Java and C# circles (corporate it developers in particular). So staying closer to what people are familiar with has value. I will generally push for PostgreSQL or CockroachDB over other SQL varieties though. MS-SQL is okay, Oracle can be a pain, both being costly. Not a fan of Maria/MySQL only because of old behaviors, and every time I've used it, there's something annoying (utf8 isn't, as an example). In either case, a SQL database service can often scale to the low millions of users if you're pretty good with how you structure things... A poorly constructed database and application can generally scale at least to thousands of users without issue. As most application development are internal business applications, that's usually enough.
8note 4y ago
A default choice really means to check your context for the weaknesses of the default. If you aren't going into something tool is specifically bad at, use it. Default choices are an agile optimization -- they make sure you don't spend a lot of time on solving problems that you might not have. The detailed tradeoffs for the best and worst tool for a job are context dependent, and that context changes over time. Your default choice will be good enough under most contexts.

tracker1 4y ago

I'd say that A SQL variation is probably the right first choice for most software projects where server stored data is involved. As much as I enjoy other options (Mongo, Cassandra, BigTable, Dynamo, etc) in different scenarios. A lot of this will come down to many developers do use SQL first... Especially in Java and C# circles (corporate it developers in particular). So staying closer to what people are familiar with has value. I will generally push for PostgreSQL or CockroachDB over other SQL varieties though. MS-SQL is okay, Oracle can be a pain, both being costly. Not a fan of Maria/MySQL only because of old behaviors, and every time I've used it, there's something annoying (utf8 isn't, as an example). In either case, a SQL database service can often scale to the low millions of users if you're pretty good with how you structure things... A poorly constructed database and application can generally scale at least to thousands of users without issue. As most application development are internal business applications, that's usually enough.

8note 4y ago

A default choice really means to check your context for the weaknesses of the default. If you aren't going into something tool is specifically bad at, use it. Default choices are an agile optimization -- they make sure you don't spend a lot of time on solving problems that you might not have. The detailed tradeoffs for the best and worst tool for a job are context dependent, and that context changes over time. Your default choice will be good enough under most contexts.