dets improvements?

[Yariv Sadan]

>
> Personally, I'd prefer not to use an external
> database.
> However, my impression, based on this list as well as
> elsewhere, is that for higher-level web or telco
> services, Mnesia will have to compete with ODBC and
> external databases or simply be left along the
> wayside.

I think that with its new clustering features, MySQL has positioned
itself as very serious competition for Mnesia even in Mnesia's home
court: soft real time applications. Yes, with MySQL you still have the
semantic gap, which is not as sexy as with a pure Erlang DB. However,
MySQL cluster has similar performace to Mnesia AFAIK, and it gives you
a mix of in-memory clustered tables as well as high capacity, high
speed transactional disc tables. The latest version, MySQL 5.1, even
has clustered disc tables, where only index rows are kept in RAM.
MySQL has a great track record with running high traffic websites, it
undergoes rapid development, and, best of all, MySQL is open source.

I think that if Ericsson wants Mnesia to stay relevent, it should
invest significant resources in its continuing improvement. The
competition is heating up and Mnesia is losing ground fast.

If Postgres develops a clustered version, Mnesia will be in even
greater trouble.

Yariv