Benefits, etc of using mySQL over SQLite (RoR)

I'm building a web application right now for my company and for whatever reason, can't get mySQL working on my Mac w/ my Ruby install (OSX 10.5)开发者_JAVA技巧. SQLite works fine though, so would it be a problem to use SQLite for now so I can get to work on this and then just change up my database.yml file to point to a mySQL database when I deploy (assuming I rerun migrations and such)?

Also, what are the benefits/drawbacks of using mySQL over SQLite in a RoR application? I've always used mySQL by default in the past, but never learned SQL directly (always through ActiveRecord) and never thought too much about the difference.

Benefits of MySQL/PostrgreSQL/etc

Pros

• Stronger data typing, which means cleaner data
• Ability to store more data
• Scale better to larger data sets
• Spatial support (think GPS)
• Full Text Search (FTS)

Cons

• Stronger data typing means data will be validated, bad data will cause errors
• Not a good candidate (if even possible) for devices with limited resources (iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, etc)

I would pick PostgreSQL v8.4+ over MySQL given the choice. MySQL's features lag behind the rest of the major SQL database alternatives.

THe biggest performance issue you may run into is table locks. SQLite unfortunately does not have row level locking. So if your app is going to run multiple processes / threads (as with multiple web users) its likely some threads will not be able to perform an SQL op. For this reason i would go with MySQL - or perhaps Postgresql.

Should be no problems, as MySQL should have a superset of SQLite capabilities, and as @Sean pointed out, performance should only increase. Just try to make sure you're not using anything too SQLite specific (I'm mainly a SQL Server and Oracle guy, so don't know what that would be, if anything). Remember, the "S" in SQL stands for Structured, not Standard ;)

Paul.

SQLite is perfect for a desktop or smartphone application ("embedded" usage). However, if you plan to build a web-application, you are highly encouraged to make use of a non-embedded DMS like MySQL. The benefits are countless, such as 3rd party design and analysis apps, performance etc ...