Rob Browning wrote:
> Alex Perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > There have been suggestions that a generic SQL database
> > can be bolted onto the back end. Has anyone done this?
>
> No. It's certainly not the plan for the normal GnuCash configuration.
> I asked about this a while back (I'm not too SQL knowledgable), and it
> was quickly obvious that average users don't want to (and shouldn't
> have to) handle the level of complexity that it would take to
> administer a full blown SQL server (a la postgresql). Normal users
> want their data in a data file on disk that they can see and
> manipulate with standard file system tools.
It would be a "k001 idea" to connect lots of things to an SQL database.
Unfortunately, this has two problems:
a) The performance problem.
Marshalling data going in and coming out consumes some time. This would
injure performance as compared to the situation of using an embedded DB.
b) The configuration problem.
There exist some "embedded DBMSes" that may be managed without conscious
effort; this requires quite a lot of "intelligent code" to be inserted into
the application, and doesn't reflect the way common Linux DBMSes (e.g. -
PostgreSQL/MySQL) work.
The problem with PostgreSQL is that configuring it, and the application that
uses it, represent significant tasks that have to be thought about. They're
not more difficult than configuring a TCP/IP network, but do reflect similar
sorts of tasks, and a similar level of complexity/difficulty.
As such, they may be considered "daunting" to the user that wants to have the
installation process no more complex than:
# su
# rpm -i gnucash-2.0-i386.rpm
# exit
% rehash
% gnucash &
%
If there existed a "libPostgreSQL" that allowed embedding the DBMS
functionality into the application in such a way as to allow one to ignore the
configuration of network access to the DB unless you really wanted to get into
that, then it might be acceptable to have this become a "default"
configuration.
In the absence of that, I'd suggest that it's not.
--
Christopher B. Browne, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne SAP Basis Consultant, UNIX Guy
Windows NT - How to make a 100 MIPS Linux workstation perform like an 8 MHz 286
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