Tree Houses and Real Houses: Research and Commercial Software

Sleepycat Software develops and supports the Open Source software product Berkeley DB, the most widely deployed embedded database software in the world. Berkeley DB originated at the University of California, Berkeley, and in this paper, we discuss the differences between research software and a quality commercial product. Over the past years we have acquired an education in configuration, portability, and testing. The key message is that code quality, a willingness to rewrite or discard code when necessary, rigorous adherence to internal standards, and constant policing of ourselves are the key requirements of quality software.