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Newbie: Crazy, but Quick

Gustavo Cordova gcordova at hebmex.com
Fri Feb 22 12:34:23 EST 2002 
> 
> For that matter, you could also store the Python objects 
> directly in the SQL database.  My own opinion is that SQL
> is so easy that it's a no-brainer to use it whenever possible.
> A problem I've seen many times is people utilize some shortcut
> because they feel the program will never need anything more,
> only later to discover that the program has utility far
> beyond what they expected, but the shortcut they've taken 
> cripples it, and they end up rewriting (or worse, they don't).
> 

Has a python wrapper for SQLite been written yet?

SQLite, for those who haven't checked it out, is a
C library (or dll) which implements a SQL data store,
complete with foreign keys, indexes, etc etc.

I think it's modeled after the PostgreSQL engine,
bit I could be very mistaken. The author has done
a few comparisons with PostgreSQL, and says that
it's about 4 times faster.

Also, it stores the whole database in a single file,
which is mighty convenient.

>
> What if she decides to maintain historical data?  Then to 
> keep the files reasonably sized, she'll have to start 
> juggling files.
> 
> Software has a tendency to grow beyond the developer's 
> expectations, so I consider it unwise to take shortcuts
> when a better long-term  solution isn't much more difficult
> to implement.

Indeed.

> 
> Not only that, but storing the data in a SQL database 
> separates the data storage from the program, so in the
> future she could use that  data from some other program,
> not just the Python one.
>
> Then if she  decides she wants to access the data from,
> say, a web server, it's not a big problem. 
>

Yep.

There's the hassle of a db server. I KNOW, to us geeky
people setting up a MySQL, an mSQL (ewww), or a pgsql
engine isn't a hassle at all, and it pays back quite
nicely by separating data storage from the application.

But to a non-developer it may be more of a hassle than
to us.

-gus
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