Re: Improving ActiveRecord Part 1

John Higgins
Tue, 24 May 2005 20:40:39 -0000

On 5/24/05, Soulhuntre
<soulhuntre-xtZVmrYH4z1ZroRs9YW3xA@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Heya :)
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
[mailto:rails-
> > bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org] On Behalf
Of John Higgins
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 3:31 PM
> > To: rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> > Subject: Re: [Rails] Improving ActiveRecord Part 1
> >
> > I always love these little "slap in the face" posts/blog
entries that
> > come up from time to time.
>
> I am a little hard pressed to see this entry, discussion an issue with
> memory usage when BLOBS are involved, as a "slap in the face". Is
any
> discussion or criticism seen as an attack? Is it helpful to Rails as a
whole
> for the community to be so touchy about this stuff?
>
> Soulhuntre
> ----------


The problem is in the way the issue is worded - it''s not an attempt to
make things better - nor is it really a technical discussion of what
the issues are.

First, he pounds rails for "incurring a massive memory hit" when using
blobs.
Then there is the little example which instead of pointing out that at
least 1 if not 2 of these 25MB objects are absolutely going to be
there no matter what because the database drivers - not the Rails
Adapter or anything else to do with Rails. The only option around that
is to somehow train database drivers to either deal with file handles
or with file names that they open up themselves and immediately pass
up to the database (not very likely).
On top of that is the little jab about how great FastCGI handles the
blob because it only takes up a few KB of ram - wonder why??????

The bottom line is that a small adjustment is required in the code to
handle blobs as parameters - and as I''ve said it''s technically
very
feasible. I''d much rather see someone pound the hell out of the
current implementation in his patch ticket with the solution then a
cheap shot which neither helps anything or correctly states the true
facts.

I don''t think I''m being touchy - I just would prefer true
facts to
distorted opinions.

--
John W Higgins
wishdev-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org