SPUG: Python/Perl

Richard Anderson starfire at zipcon.net
Thu Oct 26 00:06:25 CDT 2000


Randy, without close inspection I am confident that Perl DBI is much more
powerful than Python's anydbm/msODBC.  DBI is actually a collection of over
100 modules, some of which were first released in the mid 90s and have
undergone many upgrades.  (See
http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&query=DBI )

For example, DBI allows programmers to write code that accesses a database
as a privileged user without actually exposing the password to the
programmer.  Can anydbm do that?

I don't see Python's lack of an extensive module library as a weakness.  (If
this were true, it's a weakness that Python shares with Java, C++, etc.)
Rather, Perl's huge library of thousands of CPAN modules is a powerful tool
that has no precedent among computer languages.

Richard.Anderson at rayCosoft.com    RayCosoft, Professional Services Group
Perl/SQL/Unix software engineering    www.rayCosoft.com
www.zipcon.net/~starfire/home          Seattle, WA, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Randolph Bentson" <bentson at grieg.holmsjoen.com>
To: <ajalis at cobaltgroup.com>; <spug-list at pm.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: SPUG: Python/Perl


> On Wed, Oct 25, 2000 at 07:20:13PM -0700, Asim Jalis wrote:
> > Gisle Aas mentioned this as a footnote at the last Damianathon: the main
> > weakness in Python -- lack of modules
>
> Hmm, this would be interesting, if true.  Perhaps this poor soul meant
> "not the modules I want", which is an entirely different matter.
>
> > (for example there is no general DBI module)
>
> Other than, for instance, "anydbm" for non-SQL and mxODBC for many
> SQL database servers?
>
> (The anydbm module provides a generic interface that's used to open
> a database without specifying the lower level database package.  If
> the database exists and the appropriate package is installed, the
> open succeeds.  If the database doesn't exist, it is created using
> the first package found (according to an ordered list).
>
> The mxODBC package provides a nearly 100% Python DB API compliant
> interface to databases that are accessible via the ODBC API. Many
> databases include ODBC libraries, so this may be the only module you
> need; it supports Solid, Adabas, Sybase, Oracle, and even MySQL.)
>
> --
> Randolph Bentson
> bentson at holmsjoen.com
>
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