This post was initially going to be two sets of polls: “What is the maximum number of columns in MySQL?” and “What is the minimum maximum number of columns in MySQL?”. Before you read on, ponder those questions and come up with your own answers… and see if you’re right or can prove me wrong!

Back in 2009, I finished what seemed an epic task in the Drizzle code base: banishing the FRM file. Why? We felt it was not a good idea to keep arbitrary and obscure limitations from the 1980s alive in the 21st century and instead wanted a modular system where the storage engines themselves owned their own metadata. This was a radical departure from the MySQL philosophy, and one that has truly paid off in the Drizzle code base. However… for those using MySQL, Percona Server, MariaDB or any other of the MySQL branches/forks, you …