On Sun, Mar 24, 2002 at 12:04:35PM -0800, Jeff Zucker wrote: > Tim Bunce wrote: > > > > On Fri, Mar 22, 2002 at 02:59:00PM -0800, Jeff Zucker wrote: > > > > > > My previous thinking was more along the lines of providing only the > > > basics so that no one would be tempted to use it when they really should > > > be switching to DBI. > > > > I think the performance drop will take care of that :) > > What about those pure perl drivers that include their own database/file > management engine -- CSV, AnyData, Excel, XBase, Sprite, Chart? (are > there others?). With these DBDs, the basic limit is the engine's > searching through the files and that will be the bulk of the slowdown > regardless of how they're accessed from the top. Does DBI itself (as > distinct from DBI + drivers for real dbms's) really provide enough magic > to provide a significant speedup for these low-end drivers? (a change > from worse to less worse perhaps?)
We'll have to implement it to find out :) It might not be a problem in the end. > I do understand that providing a full DBI API for all pure perl drivers > in pure perl (DBI::PurePerl) is much more elegant and far reaching, but > I'm not sure that project would have the same goals or criterion as one > with the more limited aims I have been thinking about (DBI::Lite) -- > providing the subset of DBI and its drivers that is guaranteed to work > on all platforms without compilation, with older perls (and hopefully > newer perls), and without requiring other modules outside of core perl > or any other external programs. > > I think Simon Oliver best expressed the goal: "the perl community would > be guaranteed a working relational database on all platforms, much like > SDBM guarantees a working DBM." > > And even though SDBM is a toy compared to other approaches, its ubiquity > is a feature in itself. I didn't say DBI::PurePerl would be a *full* DBI API, but I believe it *is* the right way to provide pure-perl access to databases using a subset of the DBI. I've already started implementing it. I don't know how far I'll get before the next DBI release, but at least they'll be something to play with and extend. Tim.
