Ann W. Harrison wrote:

> Aage Johansen wrote:
>> At work, some are advocating a migration from Firebird to Sybase (yeech!).
>> Could someone here provide a list of arguments for not migrating?
>
> Well, the first one that I can think of is MVCC - moving to lock-based
> concurrency management could be a real nuisance. Triggers may be
> another problem ... the last time I looked (not recent) Sybase
> triggers didn't cascade. Stored procedure syntax and semantics
> will be a problem.
>
> Any time you've spent tuning queries will be lost. Sybase can't use
> multiple indexes on a single record source in a query, so you'll
> probably need to rethink your indexing strategy.
>
> And of course, there are the usual arguments against migration in
> general. A) It works now, why waste time moving it rather than
> improving it or other things? B) We have in-house expertise. And
> the open source argument that you're not spending money on licenses.

Thank you, those points are important and they will be part of discussions.
I'm not sure how it will turn out. Laws and regulations (involving
encryption) is what may force a switch. Note that sense and/or
rationality doesn't really enter into the discussion when regulations
are waved in front of us - comply "with the letter" or accept consequences.
To me, it looks as a lose-lose project. Converting many databases
(although only a moderate number of procedures, triggers, etc.) can
be a big job. Rewriting applications - all of which uses IBObjects -
will take time. Lots of time. After that, there are licence costs
and increased costs for "care and feeding" of a new RDBMS.
As I've mentioned, I did use (and maintain) a Sybase database for
some years. This is 5+ years ago, and I haven't missed those tasks
for a second all these years. I still remember seminars where Sybase
gurus extolled the joys of lock escalation - those were the days!

I will be very saddened if I have to see Firebird leave us at
work. It seems that there is a lesser evil than conversion to
Sybase: Interbase. There is mention of encryption facilities, and
that might be (almost) sufficient for compliance. At least,
conversion should be less
problematic. Maybe I retire before the transition is complete (or even begun)!

> Besides, we'd miss you.

Thank you VERY much.

I do have a couple of Firebird projects for friends who use Fb
databases to run their businesses, so I will hang around.


--
Aage J.