Mysql是一款我比较喜欢的数据库，毕竟我的数据库是从mysql开始入门的，要是没有mysql，估计我的数据库得很晚才能接触到。不过以前的mysql主要用于简单的网页开发，别的地方用到的很少，目前mysql已经应用于企业应用了（SAP），看来mysql也是不甘寂寞，来企业级的市场分一杯羹啊。不过mysql目前对于我的优势就是在于免费的（windows下面的授权不知道取消了没有），一些小型应用已经可以轻松的应付了。mysql5.0 alpha已经发布了，众所期待的存储过程也列入了，看来mysql已经慢慢的向功能型发展了。

The following features are planned for inclusion into MySQL 5.0. Some of the features such as stored procedures are complete and are included in MySQL 5.0 alpha, which is available now. Others such as cursors are only partially available. Expect these and other features to mature and be fully supported in upcoming releases.

Note that because we have many developers that are working on different projects, there will also be many additional features. There is also a small chance that some of these features will be added to MySQL 4.1. For a list what is already done in MySQL 4.1, see section 1.3.2.1 Features Available in MySQL 4.1.

For those wishing to take a look at the bleeding edge of MySQL development, we make our BitKeeper repository for MySQL version 5.0 publicly available. See section 2.8.3 Installing from the Development Source Tree. As of December 2003, binary builds of version 5.0 are also available.

Views
Stored Procedures
New functionality
  • Elementary cursor support. See section 19.1.8 Cursors.
  • The ability to specify explicitly for MyISAM tables that an index should be created as an RTREE index. (In MySQL 4.1, RTREE indexes are used internally for geometrical data that use GIS data types, but cannot be created on request.)
  • Dynamic length rows for MEMORY tables.
Standards compliance, portability and migration
  • Support for Data Dictionary / INFORMATION_SCHEMA.
  • Add true VARCHAR support (column lengths longer than 255, and no stripping of trailing whitespace). There is already support for this in the MyISAM storage engine, but it is not yet available at the user level.
Speed enhancements
  • SHOW COLUMNS FROM tbl_name (used by the mysql client to allow expansions of column names) should not open the table, only the definition file. This will require less memory and be much faster.
  • Allow DELETE on MyISAM tables to use the record cache. To do this, we need to update the threads record cache when we update the `.MYD' file.
  • Better support for MEMORY tables:
    • Dynamic length rows.
    • Faster row handling (less copying).
Usability enhancements
  • Resolving the issue of RENAME TABLE on a table used in an active MERGE table possibly corrupting the table.