Suggested virtual package: python-dbapi
Greetings fellow developers...
I've been packaging a few Python things lately, and I believe that a
new virtual package would be in order. As required, I am soliciting
comments before requesting that this virtual package name be added to
the official list.
Proposed name: python-dbapi
Description:
Anything that provides a Python module compatible with the standard
Python database API.
Rationale:
The DB-SIG of the Python Software Activity has defined a standard
API to be used by SQL database interfaces, similar in concept to the
Perl DBI system. The API specification may be found at:
http://www.python.org/sigs/DatabaseAPI.html
Most of the Python<->database interfaces conform to this API, even
if they also have their own API to support unique features of a
particular database.
The purpose of the DB-API is to allow programs to use different
databases interchangably. As a result, any package using the DB-API
should be able to use any compliant database interface. There are
already two DB-API compilant packages[1] in Debian, and there are
four or five more out there which have not been packaged yet.
You may notice that the Perl DBI stuff doesn't have a virtual
package. However, the Perl DBI drivers all depend on a common
package; the Python DB-API is only a specification, and there is no
central library which all the drivers depend on.
I personally have a couple of programs in development which can use
any DB-API compatible database; it would be nice if when I package
them for Debian they can specify an appropriate dependency.
[1] python-mysql (in contrib) and python-kwparsing (to be uploaded to
main shortly); the latter includes Gadfly, an in-memory SQL system
written entirely in Python.
Thanks for your time,
--Rob
--
Rob Tillotson N9MTB Internet: rob@io.com
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