Developers of Sympa

[Peter Nixon <address@concealed>]

Kevin McCann wrote:

> > You had me agreeing with you until you made it MySQL-specific.  SQL <>
> > MySQL.  Maybe I misinterpreted you -- but I try to look in other
> > directions when I find a tool that is locked into MySQL.  We use
> > postgres whenever possible.
>
>
>  Hi Jim,
>
> A year or two I might have agreed with you. But MySQL has come a long way.
> Worth another look, parhaps? In any event, I could live with Postgres. I
> just want something that is SQL based. I want to be able to use great
> scripting languages like PHP to get access to MLM data. I want to be able to
> do SELECTs and UPDATEs and INSERTs *easily*.
>
> But being able to choose the SQL DB type would be the best thing. My
> preference is MySQL but I respect the fact that yours is not.

Why on earth would you make it MySQL specific. I know MySQL has been 
"growing up" in the last year or so but it does still lack someof the 
features of Postgres. In any case there are plenty of projects around 
that happily support both.

> > They've already made the "database is required" statement.  You're
> > really just talking about moving all the control and run-time
> > information into the database from files where they currently live.
> > ("just" in that sentence includes a huge amount of work, I understand...
> > :)  From an architectural style point of view, I think it is a good fit.
>
>
> Yes, you get the idea. Take a look at the tables that Lyris List Manager
> uses:
>
> http://www.lyris.com/lm_guide/5.0/databases.html
>
> The tables of particular interest are Lists, Members, Messages, Sites,
> Inmail, Outmail, Log
>
> For each one, click on the table name, then the SQL link at the top of the
> page. This will give you a list of the fields used.
>
> Lyris got it right and has been ahead of the game for years now. It's just
> too bad that they have a criminally exorbitant licensing fee and that
> they're not open source.
>
> The only thing they didn't do right, in my opinion, is have a one-to-one
> relationship between members and lists. Meaning if I'm subscribed to three
> lists, I have three email address/ password pairs. It would have been much
> better to have:
>
> List Table
> =======
> list-id
> list_name
> list_desc
> etc
>
> Members Table
> ===========
> mem_id
> mem_lastname
> mem_firstname
> mem_password
> etc
>
> Subscriber Table
> ============
> sub_id
> sub_list_id
> sub_mem_id
> etc
>
> What I would like to do is build an open source MLM modelled after Lyris,
> but with improvements. Yes, its a lot of work, which is why it would be
> better to use an existing MLM as a jump-off point. And get MLM-savvy people
> involved. This is why I'm turning to the Sympa community to see if there is
> interest in a Sympa4SQL.
>
> This can and should be done.
>
> The applications that can and most certainly will be developed with a
> SQL-based MLM is considerable. It will make a difference in the
> collaboration and community-building landscape.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Peter