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by bastawhiz 1045 days ago
Incrementing is only one possible use case. Any time you read data and then write back based on that data, you need to ensure that nobody wrote to the document in the interim. RDBMS do this with transactions.

Consider the case where a user is submitting an e-commerce order. You want to mark their order as processed and submit it for fulfillment. If you read the order to check if it's already submitted, two requests to submit it made at almost the same time (e.g., hitting the button twice) will both read that it's unfulfilled and try to each submit it.

By doing an atomic write you can be sure that at most one request submits the order.
2 comments
thenorthbay 1045 days ago
Thank you for the feedback. Seems this is important.
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layer8 1044 days ago
I’m sorry to be this frank, but if you weren’t even aware of the importance of transactional safety for read-modify-write operations, you shouldn’t be in the business of creating such a library and advertising it. This is really basic database stuff, so you are only at the beginning of the learning curve regarding database topics.
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ndbebofienw 1044 days ago
If we allow ignorance to be the gatekeeper of progress, we will stifle the growth of every individual around us.

No one person can know everything. Teaching how to solve these problems will produce better software and better people too.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

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layer8 1044 days ago
I have no issues with the OP having that library as a side project and learning experience. But at their experience level it’s not suitable to be promoted publicly. To be fair, they only asked for opinions on it.
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jstarfish 1044 days ago
If I had a time machine, I'd use it to identify who in my life gave me this same "advice" and gift them a copy of their obituary from the future.

For a commercial product, yours is honest feedback.

But this isn't that. You popped into a literal show-and-tell to heckle some kid proud of his macaroni art. You didn't even critique the product, just insulted its maker. What the hell is wrong with you to think this is appropriate, or even helpful?

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gerad 1045 days ago
It’s possible to use optimistic locking and versioning to ensure that things haven’t changed underneath you unexpectedly.
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