Re: GNOME Database Kit Part II

[Michael Lausch <mla gams co at>]

>>>>> "Ben" == Ben Boule <bboule@xylogics.com>
>>>>> wrote the following on Thu, 06 Aug 1998 13:54:56 -0400

Ben> Adam Keys wrote:
>> ODBC is probably a bit large and unwieldy for our needs as far as I can
>> see.  It's well thought out, but there's nothing that stops us from
>> stealing their ideas...if the shoe fits, steal it!  I've been unable to
>> find info on the FreeODBC project, which looks like the most promising
>> lead in that direction.  If someone wants to send me a white paper or a
>> URL, I'd be enlightened to give them a look-see.  Right now my verdict
>> is start from scratch and steal as neccessary. :)

Ben> And then we have to write specialized drivers that use your API if we
Ben> want to connect databases to gnome?

Ben> If you use ODBC, then gnome apps will likely be able to connect to
Ben> Oracle,
Ben> Informix, and all the other new databases that are starting to support
Ben> linux.

Ben> How much harder can it possibly be to use ODBC than to roll your own
Ben> database
Ben> API?  It sounds like NIH to me.

Ben> Somebody even said there was an ODBC development kit out from
Ben> Microsoft.  That would certainly help you a little.

Ben> It just seems dumb to come up with a new API and then expect database
Ben> vendors to support something new.  They're not going to do it.  They'll
Ben> probably do ODBC
Ben> drivers, but it's doubtful they'll write drivers for your API.  After
Ben> all,
Ben> Postgresql and MySql aren't the only dbms out there, and they certainly
Ben> aren't
Ben> superior to the commercial offerings.

And for postgresql and MuSQL there exitst ODBC driver for UNIX and
Linux. Just use them.

Ben> A better compromise might be to come up with some middleware.  Gnome
Ben> apps can use
Ben> your API to talk to a server process, which then translates the requests
Ben> into 
Ben> ODBC requests.  That way you get to have a simple API for Gnome apps to
Ben> use, but
Ben> you'll also get ODBC connectivity.

I've already implemented most parts of such a layer.  The API is
derived from the python database access definition.
the only reason why i chose this interface is that i've already
implemented python bindungs for ODBC and i used this code for the
initial implementation. The code is used by quite a few people and
seems to be rather stable and contains no mmemory leaks (famous last
words ;-).

See my previous e-mails about this API.


Ben> Later,
Ben> Ben Boule

--
Michael Lausch/g.a.m.s. edv dienstleistungen gmbh
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