database of maintainers
Hi,
The data collected by the ongoing effort to collect maintainer
information is gathered an kept in a | delimited flat text file,
which is working quite well, at the moment.
1) Pros:
a) It is simple to use (read it in line by line, and split on |
Multiple report generating scripts can format the data as
needed, and use subsets of the data.
b) The databse can be mended using a simple text editor
c) Adding new maintainer information is simple (append to end of
file)
Cons:
a) The database is not randomly accesible (not a problem until we
grow a bit?)
b) Adding new columns (fields) can be tricky; have to modify all
report scripts
c) Editing the databse is also tricky (read it all in, modify in
memory, write it out (can be done one line at a time.
d) Have to write all search and print routines.
Using DB_File and friends will make it easier to randomly
access or modify data, one looses the ability to edit the database;
still has all the Cons of the current situation.
If this is going to be a persistent store on all kinds of
maintainer information, rather than just a source of xearth file
data, maybe we should move the data to some kind of a ``real'' RDBMS,
and use SQL to help print out reports.
The only databases I have used are oracle and (shudder)
Access, so people have to advise me about the various database
packages available to us -- postgres95, mysql, msql and
postgresql(??) seem to be candidates, though I have no idea how they
stack up against one other.
Comments? Do we need to go to a RDBMS? If so, which one?
manoj
--
"Question Authority and the Authorities will question You." Danny Low
(dlow%hpspcoi@hplabs.hp.com)
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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