History of MySQL

MySQL is a popular SQL Open Source Database developed by the Scandinavian company, MySQL AB. MySQL is a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust Relational Database Management System (RDMS)

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MySQL is available for many platforms of computers, including Linux, all types of Unix, Windows and Mac OS X. The offical way to pronounce MySQL is "My Ess Que Ell". The Official Web Site of MySQL is http://www.mysql.com


Why use MySQL?

MySQL was originally developed to handle very large databases much faster than existing solutions and has been successfully used in highly demanding production environments for several years. Though under constant development, MySQL today offers a rich and very useful set of functions. The connectivity, speed, and security
make MySQL highly suited for accessing databases on the Internet.

Because MySQL is Open Source, the popularity of the software with more than 2 million installations has attracted many well known corporations to use MySQL for their sites. That list includes: Yahoo!, Lucent Technologies, MP3.com, Motorola, NASA, SGI Inc., HP, Xerox, Cisco, and Agilent.

Other benefits of MySQL software being Open Source Software means that it is possible for anyone to use it and modify it. Anybody can download the software from the Internet and use it without paying anything. Anybody so inclined can study the source code and change it to fit their needs.



Characteristics of MySQL

1. The following list describes some of the important characteristics of MySQL:

2. Works on many different platforms.

3. APIs for C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Tcl.

4. Fully multi-threaded using kernel threads. This means it can easily use multiple CPUs if available.

5. A very fast thread-based memory allocation system.

6. Very fast joins using an optimised one-sweep multi-join.

7. In-memory hash tables which are used as temporary tables.

8. Full support for SQL and clauses.

9. Support for and with ANSI SQL and ODBC syntax.

10. Aliases on tables and columns are allowed as in the SQL92 standard.

11. You can mix tables from different databases in the same query.

12. A privilege and password system that is very flexible and secure.

13. Up to 32 indexes per table are allowed.

14. Clients may connect to the server using TCP/IP Sockets, Unix Sockets (Unix), or Named Pipes (NT). Open-DataBase-Connectivity, support for Win32.

15. The server can provide error messages to clients in many languages.

16. Full support for several different character sets.

17. All data is saved in the chosen character set.

18. Includes Clients and Tools for table checking, optimization, and repair.

19. With the new MyISAM tables in MySQL Version 3.23 the maximum table size is pushed up to 8 million terabytes.

20. By default, MySQL tables have a maximum size of about 4G.



Limitations of MySQL

Not fully ANSI-SQL/92 compatable

Transactions: possible with BDB, Gemini and InnoDB tables when installed.

No Triggers

No Subselects

No Views

No Stored Procedures

No PL/SQL


Where to obtain MySQL

http://mysql.com/downloads/


MySQL is downloadable for the following platforms:

Linux
Windows 95, 98 ,2000, and NT
Solaris
FreeBSD
MacOS X
HP-UX
AIX
SCO
SGI Irix
BSDi

-Joel