Re: ANNOUNCE gnome-db

["Dirk-Jan C. Binnema" <bulkmail dds nl>]

Hi there,

>I'm announcing gnome-db.


<snip>


>The API looks like:

>* db = gnome_db_login(gchar* connection_string, gchar* user, gchar*
passwd);


I thinks its a great idea to have standardized database access, so good luck
with it. However, IMO, you should _NOT_ have a Gnome specific API!!!!
There's nothing inherently GNOME'ish about database access, so lets keep the
things separated! Why not write a stuff for _generic_ database access (so
people can use it from CLI, Motif, KDE, Berlin, whatever), and then write
Gnome (GTK) specific stuff (like an Access clone).


Its a really bad MS-like strategy to lock your "customers" in. IMO opinion
all GNOME software should have their GNOME-specifics optional, so nobody is
forced into anything. E.g. Orbit and the Orbit/OLE stuff (as proposed) will
we Gnome independent Suppose GIMP
would only run on GNOME, that would be bad, wouldn't it?


I was a bit sceptical earlier about the MS-ADO (active data something) when
someone suggested this.
However, after examining it a bit more closely, ADO does have a stable API
and it looks like its gonna be _the_ higher-than-odbc level for Windoze
(note that its designed specifically to allow other things than odbc to be
under it, to be able to access any kind of data (e.g. text files). So you
have something like:


             [ado]
               |
            [oledb]
  ______________________
  |                    |
[odbc]                 |
  |                    |
[database]   [other datastores]



This extensive layering may be quite expensive, so you (we?) could make a
ADO'ish API (or a subset) directly on top of ODBC, and maybe later add an
extra layer to allow querying of non-odbc datastores. Like:

[ado]
  |
[odbc]
  |
[database]

Most higher-level database APIs
look quite alike, so we might as well use one that's already there, and
adapt the parts we don't like. This
will make programming (a little) easier, since it means one less API to get
used to (at least for people
doing ADO now...). Note that ADO looks quite like the example you gave of
your API.

Concluding:
(1) I really like your project, but I have some objections to Gnome-specific
inplementation of the
non UI stuff. So I would suggest to remove gnome_ prefixes and replacing
Gnome/GTK specific dataypes (e.g gint).
(2) Why not use an existing API, and if necessary, adapt to our needs. For
example, you could use ADO.


Good luck,
Dirk-Jan C. Binnema.