trueman@mprvaxa.UUCP (David Trueman) (11/27/85)
We have been evaluating DBMSs for the last few weeks, and thought that we
would share our results to date with others on the net doing the same thing.
At the same time we hope to receive comments on our findings. At the end of
this article is the tbl source for a table that summarizes what we have
found out. Our selection has been narrowed down to a choice between Ingres
and Oracle. We have included two others here for comparison. Mistress
looks pretty good as far as we have looked, but does not run on VMS (except
under UNITY) which is a requirement for us. We are currently running Rdb
on VMS and have found it unacceptable, for reasons which should be obvious
from looking at the table. It does not run on UNIX.
The criteria presented here are, of course, a subset of what could be
considered, and all are not of equal weight. The absence of an entry simply
means that we haven't yet found out the answer for that slot.
We would be very interested in comments. If there is sufficient interest
I will post a followup to the net of any additional information.
------------ tbl source follows -- cut here and run through tbl and troff -----
.TS H
allbox center tab(^);
lw(3.5i)|l|c|c|c|c.
Criterion^Oracle^Ingres^Mistress^Rdb
=
.TH
Mature Product^Y^Y^Y^No
Stable Product^Y^Y^Y^No
Positive references from Customers
Clear & Precise Documentation^^^^?
Clear & Precise Error Messages^^^^Y
Good Training Resources
Good Support^^^^No
Good Access to Technical Assistance^^^^No
Strong, Stable Vendor^Y^Y^^Y
Arbitrary length, or compressed Character Data^Y^Y^Y^No
Adequately long (>1024) Character Strings^240^Y^Y^16 K
Store Upper & Lower Case Characters^Y^Y^^Y
Ignore case for Search, Sort^Y^Y^^No
Record Locking^Y^Page^Y^Y
Table Locking^Y^Y^Y^Y
Field Level Access^Y^Y^^Y
Field Level Security^Y^Y^^Y
Field Value Security^Y^Y^^Y
Batch Load/Unload^Y^Y^Y^No
Database Compress Utility^Y^Y^^No
Procedural Language Interface^Y^Y^Y^Y
Multiple Database Support^Y^1 open^^Y
Distributed Database Access^Y^Y^^Y
VMS Support^Y^Y^No^Y
UNIX 4.2BSD Support^No^Y^Y^No
Ultrix Support^?^Y^Y^No
Data General AOS/VS Support^Y^No^^No
IBM VM Support^Y^Y^^No
DECnet Support^Y^Y^^Y
Apollo Support^Y^No^^No
Fixed Decimal Data^Y^No^Y^No
Date Data^Y^Y^Y^Y
Date Arithmetic^Y^Y^^No
Self-joins^Y^Y^Y^Y
Pattern matching in select^Y^Y^^No
Arbitrarily Long Transactions^Y^Y^^Y
Multiple, NonUnique Secondary Indices^Y^Y^Y^Y
Referential Integrity Check^No^No^^Y
Constraints independant of relation protections^Y^None^^No
Views independant of relation protections^Y^No^^No
Active Data Dictionary^Y^Y^Y^No
Adequate Recovery from system failure^Y^Y^Y^Y
Multiple concurrent access^Y^Y^Y^Y
Multiple concurrent Update^Y^Y^^Y
Unique Null Value^Y^No^Y^Y
Composite Indices^Y^to 6^No^Y
Use of System Editor^^^Y^Y
Full Screen Editor^Y^Y^Y^Y
Deadlock Detection^Y^Y^^Y
X3H2 SQL Participation^Y
Menu System Support^Y^Y^Y^No
Include Procedural Language Programs call from Menus^Y^Y^^No
C Support^Y^Y^Y^No
PL/I Support^Y^Y^No^?
Easy User Interface for Casual Users^Y^Y^^No
Max Databases per System^36^Unlim^>10000
Max Database size^>16 disks^Unlim^1 Disk
Max Tables per Database^unlim^Unlim^9999
Max Columns per Table^254^127^9999
Max Size of Table^Unlim^1 Disk^1 Disk
Max Records per Table^unlim^Unlim^2 G
Max record size^3.7 G^2008^2 G
Max Databases sim. accessible^unlim^1^50-100
Max keys in a sort^unlim^^9999
Max Indices per Table^unlim^unlim^1 per Col
Max nesting in Nested Select^16 or 256^10^100
Field Level Encryption
=
Graphics Capability^Y^Y
Line Graphs^Y^Y
Scatter Graphs^Y^Y
Bar Charts^Y^Y
Pie Charts^Y^Y
Linear Regression^^Y
=
Report Writer^Y^Y^^Y
Compiled, not interpreted, Specs
Conditional Execution^Y^Y^^No
Left Justify^Y^Y^^No
Right Justify^Y^Y^^Y
Centre Text^Y^Y^^No
Decimal Align Output^Y^Y^^No
Output Picture Specification^Y^Y^^Y
Flexible, MultiLine Titles^Y^Y no data^^?
Flexible, MultiLine Column Headings^Y^Y no data^^?
COUNT^Y^Y^Y^Y
MAX^Y^Y^Y^Y
MIN^Y^Y^Y^Y
AVG^Y^Y^Y^Y
TOTAL^Y^Y^^Y
Running Totals^Y^Y
Page Totals^Y^Y^^Y
Multiple Break Levels^Y^Y^^Y
Break on Non-display Field^Y^^^No
NonColumnar Report Layout^Y^Y^^No
Complex Calculations in Report^Y^Y^^No
Functions used on Calculated Fields^Y^^^Y
NonDisplay on Calculated Fields^Y^^^No
Ability to develop new Report, while using old one
=
Screen Manager^Y^Y^Y^Y
VT100 Support^Y^Y^^Y
Ability to Dynamically alter field attributes^No^v4^^Y
Compiled, not interpreted, Specs^Y^Y^^Y
Standard Date Format^Y^No^^Y
Date Validity Checking^Y^No^^Y
Range Validity Checking^Y^Y^^Y
List Validity Checking^Y^Y^^Y
Pattern Validity Checking^Y^Y^^No
Validity Checking against DB Contents^Y^Y^^No
Multiple Virtual Pages^No^Y^Y^No
Scrolled Regions^Y^Y^^Y
Indexed Fields^No^No^^Y
Procedural Language Interface^Y^Y^^Y
Form definition independant of Application Program^^^^Y
Ability to develop new screen, while using old one^^^^Y
.TE
--
David Trueman
Microtel Pacific Research
{ihnp4!alberta sun utcsri}!ubc-vision!mprvaxa!trueman