Those Darned Databases

Programmer Asks: Why Would Reading Ever Block Write?

It would be easy to point and laugh. Too easy. We all make silly mistakes and assumptions no matter how long we've spent trying to piece together software. The field is large -- very, very large. Algorithms on sorting and searching, trees and maps and sets, parsing, concurrency and locking, bit operations, I/O, networking, sockets, generics and templates, security and encryption.

And then there's the countless APIs, libraries, frameworks and entire platforms that one need to master.

That's a lot for one person to keep tabs on. And all of us find at some point that we have gaps in our knowledge. Even on some essential knowledge.

But still -- databases are so central and essential to so many applications we build that it's still surprising to find so many people confused or misunderstanding what the ultimate data store backing their application is trying to do. No wonder ORM tools are so popular -- most programmers would just rather ignore what's going on under that layer to the detriment of their DBAs.

Isolation levels, locking and concurrency are not trivial topics so it's not surprising if many developers would rather not be thinking about them and instead concentrate on the latest AJAX widget. But they're also so essential for anyone who calls himself a developer to understand that the idea that they continue to be so poorly understood is a bit frightening.