[Courses] [Postgresql] What is PostgreSQL?

[Michelle M]

What is Postgresql, why is it worth using? Check out the main PG site: 
http://www.postgresql.org

Wikipedia, of course, has a great entry on PostgreSQL, which is 
definitely worth a detailed read. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postgresql)

PostgreSQL is a relational database system that is quite powerful. It 
has been around for a while, as the wikipedia article talks about.

PostgreSQL is ACID compliant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID), and 
has been that way long before MySQL was. ACID compliance means that a 
database makes sure that transactions occur reliably. This includes:

Atomicity - the database system will do all of the tasks in a 
transaction, or none of them
Consistency - integrity constraints are kept
Isolation - tasks outside a transaction can never see data in an 
intermediate state
Durability - once a transaction is complete, it persists.

PostgreSQL has lots of interesting and useful features, which we'll talk 
about over the course of the next 14 weeks.

I chose PG years ago because it was a more robust, secure, and feature 
rich DBMS system at the time I was evaluating it in comparison to MySQL. 
MySQL has definitely caught up. But I'm still partial to PG.

Lots of open source CMS and other systems support PG.

PG is cross-platform. We'll focus on installing and using it in Linux 
(we are, after all, Linuxchix), but next week, I will give some details 
about how to install it on other platforms.

Assignment for the week (this is also on Moodle). Due by Sunday (just to 
keep the flow of the course going well)

I have two questions for you to send in your answers to the list, if you 
wish:

- Give us a brief intro to yourself, and why you are taking this course
- If you haven't already, think of a concrete project you'd like to use 
PG with. Share with us a brief synopsis of the project: the problem, the 
platform, the approach you'll think you'll take, and why you think PG 
might be a good fit. It should be something that will be fun, and 
perhaps a bit challenging for you.

The project is important. It's been my experience that it's much easier 
to learn something when you have a concrete need, than just doing 
something in the abstract.

Next Week:

Installing PG on multiple platforms

Peace,
Michelle
-- 
Michelle Murrain
michelle at murrain.net
http://www.murrain.net
Blog: http://www.metacentricities.com

Skype: pearlbear
AIM: pearlbear0