dfragnito

The mismatch of code fluidity and the rigidity of the RDBMS is why created https://schemafreesql.com . We ofcourse looked at NOSQL but our fondness of SQL kept us from considering.

This is one of the reasons we created https://schemafreesql.com. We wanted SQL with some of the document store (NOSQL) features.

Thanks !! We had hoped to use PS for our serverless backend and also offer a dedicated PS option. But we ran into some issues with Vitess. I was just thinking today I wanted to get back into it and see if we can resolve these issues. We had to go with Aurora.

The issues were on deletes. This demo is read only so it works well with a PS backend. My experience with your CS has been amazing despite these issues!!

We accomplish similar with SchemafreeSQL. Currently MySQL 8 back-end but working on other SQL back-ends. This demo uses PlanetScale as the DB back-end, Fly.io handles the SFSQL endpoint, Netlify function handles the query, and cytoscape.js graph network library for the UI

https://harmonious-mermaid-c4d794.netlify.app/got (sorry not mobile friendly but functional)

It's not hate it's differences in philosophies.

https://schemafreesql.com/blog/blogpost.html?id=1

SFSQL does have a rules API not implemented in our Hosted Offering. We have plans to enable it.

Eric and I have been together since 1997 solving problems with this thing called the Internet. Dynamics yes you can call it that. The comment was tongue and cheek about the code. Eric was unavailable to respond to comments in a timely manner so I let be known. Read into it as you want.

You are correct there is a "schema" behind behind the scenes. Managing complex relationships between data and evolving those relationships can be a daunting task. SFSQL was created for that purpose.

This is a failure of the UI.

I believe you clicked on "A Document Store like Mongo" and saw "Create a 'brand' table" which then goes on to explain why a document store does not adequately solve the problem

The hope is that we are conveying a good enough reason to give us money. Thanks for you feedback

Yes I see what you mean by "infomercial" when comparing SFSQL to EdgeDb. Was not our intention, its a work in progress. Will make the needed changes, thanks again for feedback.

The focus is on value prop. and yes the docs are lacking.

Your feedback to include a comparison of our language to SQL is good. I was hoping the breakdown of the "shop admin" demo detailed the semantics of the language but looks like that it did not work for you.

The thought was that by going through the examples with the free trial one could get up top speed with SFSQL, but maybe a more formal introduction to the language is needed.

For reasons beyond our control Eric is not available for commenting at this time. He not wanting to take credit for the demos was more of a joke. Non trivial client work we have produced with SFSQL is not available for public review. I wanted public demos so I made them also to show how a novice can hook up a back-end with SFSQL sorry it came off as weird.

Also sorry we could not peak your curiosity a bit more, we will do better.

Hi HN, I'm Dean, the non-technical co-founder of SchemafreeSQL. We released our beta version about a year ago. You can see the HN Post here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30291592

Today I am pleased to announce our initial release of our hosted SFSQL offering.

A major concern from the HN Beta feedback we received was our longevity. Being a hosted database solution I can see why. We took that to heart and re-engineered our offering. We de-risked it by minimizing the amount of infrastructure under our management, fly.io manages customer's dedicated SFSQL endpoints, Aiven.io manages customer's dedicated databases across 5 clouds, our serverless offering is a managed AWS Aurora Serverless cluster, our in-house databases is managed by Planetscale.com, and Stripe handles subscriptions. The cost of these services are mostly on demand, bringing our monthly fixed cost to a very manageable level.

I highly recommend all these services.

We are boot strapping SFSQL for now. Our business model, how we make money, is simple. Our prices are higher than our costs. Just like all businesses, margins matter and because we incur the costs of these service and pass them on, our margins take a hit. We envision being more of an add-on to these service providers and others like them eventually. Our margins would increase and the total cost to our customers would decrease. In this model our pricing is purely value based.

"Data, Fluid as Code" is what we settled on after countless iterations. I believe it captures the "why" question, "why did we build this". SFSQL originally started out as an Object store for a online dev. environment we built in 2000. It has evolved over time. Its schemaless properties where added as we had a need to better handle user provided data structures and refactoring associated with many of our client projects.

Eric, the technical co-founder and creator of SFSQL, answered the "How" question in our HN beta post. For more in depth info on what's going on behind the scenes Eric is available via email [email protected], he is not available to respond here.

The demo apps were all built by me. Eric would like it known that he is not responsible for those codes bases, which are all available on GitHub. I built these apps while testing out SFSQL and seeing if we play nice with the various serverless platforms. Client solutions we have built with SFSQL are not available for public display so we went with these demo apps I built. The apps show how easy it is to hook up a back-end to a web app with SFSQL even by a non programmer like myself.

I hope you check out SFSQL. Try it for free, no sign-up required, and please leave us feedback https://schemafreesql.com/givefeedback_HN.html

Have you looked at planetscale.

It would not work in its current state but we have plans for a Lambda compatable offering. We are also looking at fly.io and other "serverless" function providers.

In a self hosted model developers would host SFSQL on their own infrastructure, which could be AWS, Google, Azure, DO, etc.. There is no reliance on us. Yes we are maintaining the API and underlying implementation. Software is a Service thus the subscription model.

Great question.

We have shut down our consulting business and are all in on SFSQL. We will not be offering a FOSS solution. Our plans are to provide SFSQL via a subscription based self hosted model. Delivered initially as a docker container.

SAAS offerings would be provided through infrastructure provider partners. We would prefer not to be the SAAS provider of SFSQL. We have other business models that we plan to deploy but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

I see, thanks we will change the verbiage.

We tried to remove friction by allowing beta account creation without a password and one click demo account creation.

You can start using the beta service without creating a password, maybe that was not clear? We have "beta" there just so you know it's not production ready. We can put the beta verbiage in the account creation page description but not in the Create Account Button call to action.

Thanks for the feedback.

Looks like chrome pw gen does not generate a special character we have removed that restriction. Please try again.

Checking into this now.

A more detailed response will be provided shortly but I do encourage you to launch a demo, https://schemafreesql.com/demo.html. You will be provided with an endpoint and access key to your own dedicated SFSQL service. No login required. You can start trying it out from within your own environment.

I would hope that the “what” SFSQL is doing for you is answered on our home page, if not our apologies. We are constantly working on describing the benefits of using SFSQL. “How” we do it is a bit of a moving target for now. The purpose of the beta is to access our implementation and make any needed tweaks. With that said we will provide a better answer to the "How", stay tuned. As previously stated upon the release of our self hosted offering all will be revealed.

*edit typo

Software exists for its users business exist for its owners more precisely its stakeholder, further divide stakeholders into the various rights, control, claims on cash flow, claims on assets, give users the first then watch what happens.

I forgot it's April 1, ugh, it was very early when I received this email.

"Servicise" everything. The purchase of the UBER-toaster has a web-service associated with it. Do you really want the toaster or do you want your bread toaseted? When you re "sell" the toaster the service goes with it, it cost money to provide this service, so maybe the service provider is due a portion of the resale?