The LedgerSMB Service Locator for UDF's: How it Works
One of the questions I got from a post last week was how the LedgerSMB service locator works. In the past I have covered the database design side, but...
View ArticleA Distributist View on Software Freedom
We are relatively familiar with Stallman's views on software freedom. These views are deeply based on the idea that we can enumerate rights which...
View ArticleA Few Cases Where EAV Modelling Really Works in LedgerSMB.
Entity-attribute-value (EAV) modelling is typically seen as an antipattern and for good reasons. Misapplied it leads to inflexible queries, poor...
View ArticleIntroduction to PostgreSQL Arrays, Basic Concepts and Normalization...
This is part of a two part series. The second will discuss indexing arrays which is a complex topic. PostgreSQL has very good support for arrays of...
View ArticleArrays and Indexing, Problems and Solutions
Arrays in PostgreSQL are relatively well supported by the indexing engines of this RDBMS. There are a fair number of options however to be aware of and...
View ArticleSetting Up a Cloud in a PostgreSQL-Centric Automation Environment
One of the challenges of setting up a cloud hosting environment is ensuring that systems are as configured and that the desired state is one which can be...
View ArticleIn Defense of Hand-coded SQL
One common comment I get when I point out that I hand-write all of my SQL queries, rather than relying on an ORM or the like, is that it is drudge work,...
View ArticleEncryption: MySQL vs. PostgreSQL
First a note, all my tests involved a relatively simple table with a schema like this (column names did vary):CREATE TABLE enctest ( id int, id_text...
View ArticlePGObject on CPAN: NoSQL Ideas for PostgreSQL Applications
One of the legitimate points Martin Fowler has argued in favor of NoSQL databases is that expecting application to directly manipulate relational data is far...
View ArticleMath and SQL, Part 1: Introduction - Relations and Functions
There are two goals I have in this series. The first is to heavily ground database thinking in mathematics thinking. The second is to connect this...
View ArticleMath and SQL, Part 2: Functions and First Normal Form
There is probably no piece of relational database theory which is so poorly understood in professional literature than first normal form. This piece seeks to...
View ArticleMath and SQL Part 3: MVCC, Immutability, and Functional Programming
While first normal form is pretty much restricted to relational operations, this piece is more general. It looks at the basic promise of functional...
View ArticleMath and SQL, Part 4: Basic Data Types - Sets, Tuples, and Bags
A reasonable understanding of the relational model requires understanding the basic data types which make it up, both in the idealized model and in real-world...
View ArticleMath and SQL Part 5: Projection and Selection
The SELECT statement is the workhorse of SQL. Updates and inserts are necessary, but selects are where the power is. One of the significant issues...
View ArticleMath and SQL Part 6: The Problem with NULLs
This will be the final installment on Math and SQL and will cover the problem with NULLs. NULL handling is probably the most poorly thought-out feature...
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