Please move HSQL from your Develepment category to the Database category.
given by Anonymous on May 3, 2007
given by Bradley Kieser on February 25, 2009
HSQLDB is just stunning in its compact footprint and its high performance.
It doesn't come close to Postgres or MySQL in terms of features but that's the whole point. It's not meant to do this. It's designed to be embeddable in an application yet it can also run client-server allowing it to pack a punch way bigger than its tiny code-base would imply.
HSQLDB has many nice features about it. It's actually quite brilliant if you think about it because HSQLDB, written in Java, immediately has all the power of Java so the designers didn't have to write a very large number of routines. But better than that, it benefits from the massive amount of testing and optimisation that goes into the Java runtime environment! This gives HSQLDB huge stability and speed advantages.
It also allows you to make very cunning use of the huge array of Java libraries and resources turning HSQLDB into an extremely powerful database if you use its features properly.
However, the Java design means that your database development now instantly benefits from the automated testing capabilities in Java. And of course using the existing Java resources not only brings stable and bug-free enhancements to your project, it means that maintenance, which is 80% of all the cost and effort in a product's lifecycle, has suddenly become easier thanks to the clean, plug-in nature of Java components and its "upgradability".
If you use OpenOffice, don't mess about, create databases in HSQLDB rather than the native Base format, it really it worth it. They chose HSQLDB for a reason!
For example, you build a database application in OpenOffice. You very wisely chose to use HSQLDB. Your application now needs to be used by several people who have recently started maintaining the same data as you. Not a problem, you drop the database out of embedded mode and into client-server mode and bingo, now everyone can use your app as easily as that!
given by Jimbo Jones on November 26, 2011
I've been working with a standalone HSQL db with open office writer documents as dashboards and it has served me brilliantly. The database does have some limitations but I have found a workaround for everyone I have run into thus far. Upgrading to version 2.0 gave me a few new handy features. The hardest part of the project was learning OOo Basic for the macros - but that is not really anything to do with the database itself. Very stable, very robust - for small business software development this one should not be overlooked. Besides, its free ;-)
About the only downside I can say is tha thorough documentation is a little trickier to find.
