----- Original Message ----- From: "Kodrik" <kod...@zc8.com> To: "Franklin Schmidt" <fra...@gustos.com>

Please allow me to clarify a few items here, since we don't want misunderstandings to linger around forever....

1) MySQL supports transactions since 3.23.34a, with the InnoDB and BDB table types. Using the the InnoDB table handler you have commit, rollback, crash recovery capabilities, row level locking, consistent non-locking read, and much more... See http://www.mysql.com/doc/I/n/InnoDB.html and elsewhere in the manual for heaps of info.

2) Foreign keys are supported by the InnoDB table handler from 3.23.44. http://www.mysql.com/doc/S/E/SEC427.html

3) The other items you mentioned are already part of the 4.x development track. http://www.mysql.com/doc/N/u/Nutshell_4.1_development_release.html For the curious: implementation of these new features should not adversely affect your performance if you don't use the features. In simple terms: trust Monty! ;-)

4) Finally, MySQL does in fact have a NO DEFAULT option. This was kindly pointed out by Paul DuBois a few days ago. The DONT_USE_DEFAULT_FIELDS compile time option has existed since as early as version 3.20.14. From the manual: "You can configure MySQL not to use DEFAULT column values for non-NULL columns (that is, columns that are not allowed to be NULL). This causes INSERT statements to generate an error unless you explicitly specify values for all columns that require a non-NULL value." See http://www.mysql.com/doc/c/o/configure_options.html I do believe this option addresses the issue put forward by Frank and Shelby.

Regards, Arjen.