SQL vs. NoSQL Databases: What’s the Difference?

Re:SQL vs. NoSQL Databases: What’s the Difference? by paulmd on Thursday May 12, 2016 @01:14PM (#11685085)

Having rigid definitions for data types doesn't necessarily mean the datastore is rigid. It just means that you know what type of data goes in each column. Like it or not, if you change your schema that change has to be handled somewhere - either you update the old data to the new schema (do this), or you handle old versions of the schema in the application (fundamentally non-scalable IMO). It doesn't matter whether they're values in a JSON object or columns in a relational DB.

Flyway is a fantastic tool for making changes to relational schemas. Your code is versioned, and you can just keep the schema migration scripts right next to it. If you need to upgrade an old schema, it just walks through the migration scripts until it's up-to-date.

If there is some portion of your model that really, truly, honestly consists of unstructured data, you can just put that in a JSON column.

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Re:SQL vs. NoSQL Databases: What’s the Difference? by Scarbutt on Thursday May 12, 2016 @02:23PM (#11685598)

That is why I mentioned prototypes, they are a quick messy hack that is not meant to scale, its purpose its to validate your ideas and decisions, what is going to become your MVP, which IMO is far more important than getting the perfect stack/tooling from the start.

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Re:SQL vs. NoSQL Databases: What’s the Difference? by gjolund on Thursday May 12, 2016 @04:44PM (#11686636)

We obviously value very different things in regards to software development.

You really seem to favor initial velocity and rapid iteration. Fair, I can totally understand why.

I favor planning, stability, and limiting thrash due to bad/uninformed decision making.

In my experience the rush to market only pans out when you plan on having a large influx of funding to rebuild your stack. Otherwise you are stuck holding a mess of code and trying to scale ideas that never should have gone to production in the first place.

There is a whole other side to the industry that demands provably correct solutions, and will not tolerate the "hacker culture". Not because of any petty reasons like work hours or perks, but because some applications require a level of accuracy that your average growth hacker can't meet.

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Re:SQL vs. NoSQL Databases: What’s the Difference? by gjolund on Thursday May 12, 2016 @01:46PM (#11685322)

I also really like the sqitch project for migration management.

http://sqitch.org/

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