Posted on 3 Comments

OQ Poll: which MySQL version do you use for development?

Related to my post earlier today about the use of MySQL 5.0 and the Open Query course on upgrading and new features… I thought it might be good to do a broader poll of the MySQL population and see what version people are using for development (not deployment) right now!

Use this link to go directly to this OQ Poll page: Which MySQL version do you use for development?

Development is not quite the same as production. It can be good to use a newer version in development, as you have new features (and fewer old bugs 😉 at your disposal. Regardless of the release status of a version, by the time your application reaches production stage, you will be comfortable with that version so deploying on it will be fine.

Development is the ideal time for being progressive with choice of version, since at any other stage it can be risky or costly (in terms of QA). So, I’m very curious whether developers are indeed being progressive in this respect.
Please enter your vote! Thanks

Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “OQ Poll: which MySQL version do you use for development?

  1. The whole notion of using a different version in development and production is wholly nonsense.

    Upgrading production versions “because you can” is also not a good idea. Validating a large existing application against a new MySQL version is non-trivial in the extreme.

    I can’t believe anyone would suggesting using a new version “in development” – you must use what you’re going to deploy – and in 99% of cases, that will be what’s already deployed, or you’d have to re-test your entire application (just working out how to do this is tricky for a large app) against a new version.

    Introducing bugs is almost guaranteed if you upgrade to a new version of MySQL- detecting all of them is not easy and will need to be planned VERY carefully.

    Mark

  2. Organisations often have multiple applications with new ones getting developed also. It’s good to realise that you don’t necessarily need to (or want to) run everything on the same version. This may appear nice from a management perspective, but you also start to lag behind and this can be detrimental to the business.

    The point about using a newer version in development is definitely primarily aimed at NEW applications, although a major rewrite of an existing app is also a good candidate. At some level the amount and depth of testing required is such that making the leap is less risky at that stage than it would be at any other moment.

    Also, if test-driven development is used with good code coverage checks and so on, the overall risk is reduced anyway. Naturally, many existing apps definitely are not that fortunate, and the companies that own those apps will need to take great care.

    However, you can’t stay at a certain version forever, for a plethora of reasons.
    I support quite a few “older” MySQL versions for clients, and my expertise with those older versions’ specifics is definitely a requirement and still it can be quite painful to maintain. Some things just can’t be fixed or worked around, some things just won’t scale, and so on.

    So in summary, while I fully appreciate your concern, a) I am not promoting always using a later version on dev boxes for existing apps and b) I want to make people aware that a “no cannot use newer ever” is not a sustainable position from a business perspective.
    I hope we can agree on that?

  3. […] Here are the results for this poll, as described in my post some weeks back. […]

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