Re: ESRI GIS products support lacking in MySQL???

[Robert J Taylor]

Cynically, MySQL is probably not prohibitively expensive enough to hide 
the prohibitive expense of their add-on product. :)

In any event, MySQL is up-front with its features and drawbacks as can 
be seen here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Compatibility.html
(Especially scroll down to the subsection:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Open_bugs.html)

However, at the recent MySQL Users' Conference in Orlando, FL, there was 
at least one vendor present touting MySQL and its GIS data solution, 
vis-a-vis:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/GIS_introduction.html

That link will also lead you to the GIS implementation in MySQL and its 
limitations (I see the word "subset").

HTH,

Robert J Taylor

robert@stripped

Douglas Phillipson wrote:

> I hope this isn't an inappropriate list for this...
>
> I have been trying to get ESRI (ww.esri.com) to consider supporting 
> MySQL as a backend Database.  They informed me that MySQL doesn't have 
> all the features required to support ESRI's products.  Since the 
> alternatives are Oracle and SQL Server, and Oracle is prohibitively 
> expensive, I'm wondering if your MySQL AB has considered contacting 
> ESRI to see what their requirements are.  ESRI is the standard for GIS 
> systems.  It would seem to me that if your database could be used by 
> ESRI that you might get tens of thousands of new customers all over 
> the world.
>
> I'm wondering if anyone else has probed exactly what is missing in 
> MySQL that makes it inappropriate for use by ESRI.
>
> Regards
>
> Doug P
>