> I think you also mentioned that Ebay doesn't allow joins and uses the
> application to do the joining. If that's the case, I'm glad I don't work
> for Ebay. I'll be willing to bet that the Ebay application is written in
> Java - that sounds like the sort of thing that the Java developers (and
> vendors) I come into contact always do, treat the database as a bit
> bucket and reinvent the wheel - caching results, joins, referential
> integrity, check constraints etc.

http://www.addsimplicity.com/downloads/eBaySDForum2006-11-29.pdf

No business logic in database
no stored procedure
only very simple triggers (default population)

Move CPU intensive work to applications
Referential integrity
joins
sorting

Extensive use of prepared statements and variables

and yes you are right they move their C++/ISAPI to JAVA :) by the way that a curious choice ...