Author Archives: emilyedaves

CouchDB as a Database Solution – Part 2

The CouchDB Developer interviews have been a great opportunity to get an inside track on CouchDB. One of our primary interview questions pertained to the top benefits of using CouchDB as a database solution.
After compiling our survey results to date, the number one slot went easily to sync, with replication coming in a quick second. Tailing these were CouchDB’s built-in web interface and its versatile secondary indexing capabilities.

In our interview with Nick Vatamaniuc, he shared the value of being able to open Fauxton and inspect, query and modify data, stating it is a powerful and useful feature.  He went on to explain that he can speed up product development, for example by letting a front end developer populate the database by hand; with some “mock” data and a few mouse clicks they can refine their design. He stated that it can also help in production when something isn’t working quite right and there is a need to see the state in the database, noting that for newcomers this makes it easy to learn and experiment.

Joan Touzet was one of the developers who felt that CouchDB’s powerful and versatile secondary indexing capabilities was worth a mention. “Yeah, it’s a mouthful, but you can do all sorts of interesting things.” She went on to state that for simple indexing, CouchDB has the Mango library in 2.0 and if you want to get more complex, you can write a JavaScript Map/Reduce function. In addition, there are open source add-ons for full-text search and robust geo indexing, too. Joan wrapped it up by stating that she’s yet to find a kind of indexing that she’s been unable to do when having such tools at her disposal.

Stay tuned to learn more developer details on the benefits of using CouchDB as a database solution.

 

We look forward to overviewing some additional benefits to those mentioned here. If you’d like to add a benefit to our list or there’s something particular you’d like to see covered on the CouchDB blog, we would love to accommodate. Email us!

For more about CouchDB visit couchdb.apache.org or follow us on Twitter at @couchdb. 

Couch of Ages: Hysteric Rationalism

 

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To say the Victorians were a stuffy, repressed lot is an understatement.

Everything—and I mean everything—was governed by stiff rules of etiquette and manners. This rigid attitude extended to fashion and furniture through that hallmark of antiquated sexism that is the fainting couch.

These unique pieces owe their existence to the concept of hysteria, a catch-all diagnosis that covered all kinds of wacky “symptoms” endured by the fairer sex. Fainting spells were the trademark calling card of the hysteric, a byproduct of restrictive female fashions of the time. Something was needed to accommodate this unfortunate condition, and thus, the fainting couch was born.

No Victorian drawing room could live without one; some homes dedicated whole rooms for “delicate” women to recline or wait for assistance as needed.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining in all of this.

The couch endured as a mainstay of home décor and a social movement based on women’s fashion and taste, sparked by the fainting couch, carried into the Edwardian era.

This led to new concepts like the smoothly curved Rococo and the rustic minimalism of mission style settees that would herald a sea change in furniture design. Fueled by industry, this new paradigm favored sharp angles and simple beauty, the first hints of what would come to be known as modernism.

 

Sometimes you’ve just got to relax and have a bit of fun. Stay tuned for more from the Couch of Ages blog series and please, feel free to email us if there’s something you’d like to see covered in this space. Have a great day and try to find a bit of time to relax.  

For more about CouchDB visit couchdb.apache.org or follow us on Twitter at @couchdb. 

Image credit: www.bonninashley.com