Thursday, December 29, 2005

MySQL udf.NET, wtf?

I just read a post on Brian Aker's blog hinting on plans to embed MONO, the open source fork of the Microsoft .NET framework, into MySQL as an UDF language, or even an alternative Stored Procedure language.

Brian's post's just a brief mental note made public. It refers to a post on Miguel de Icaza's blog. Unfortunately, the link is broken, but I was able to dig up what I think is the intended adres.

Well, I think this is great and exciting news! I did a couple of things with Microsoft C# .NET, and however shallow my impression might be, I think the framework's solid - I like it. (I like C# too, but that's technically a different matter.) I haven't had an opportunity to check out MONO, but I heard some very promising things about it. (I heard someone claim binary compatibility - imagine, no recompile across OS-platforms!)

Anyone not experienced in C/C++ that did program an UDF will probably welcome the addition of a managed language to write their UDF. Also, having the ability to write stored procedures in some language based on the framework is bound to open up MySQL to a whole new group of users. It will definitely keep the Gap between MS SQL server 2005 and MySQL a lot smaller.

It makes me wonder though. The following quote is from the chapter 17.2.1. CREATE PROCEDURE and CREATE FUNCTION from the MySQL Reference Manual (v 5.0):

A framework for external stored procedures will be introduced in the near future. This will allow you to write stored procedures in languages other than SQL. Most likely, one of the first languages to be supported is PHP because the core PHP engine is small, thread-safe, and can easily be embedded. Because the framework is public, it is expected that many other languages can also be supported.

Question is, is PHP still in the picture? I sure do hope so! What about Java (I'm thinking Oracle compatibilty here)?
Anyway, exciting stuff ahead!

3 comments:

Popa Adrian Marius said...

Firebird experimental branch already uses .net(mono)for writing stored procedures
Here is the link for .net (an part of it)

Popa Adrian Marius said...

Firebird experimental branch already uses .net(mono)for writing stored procedures
Here is the link for .net (an part of it)

rpbouman said...

Hi Mariuz!

Thanks for you comment! I wasn't at all aware of this. Frankly, I haven't been up to date for some time now regarding Firebird developments.

So, thank you for pointing it out!

kind regards,

Roland.

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