Re: [Bug-gnubg] Database interface

[Jon Kinsey]

Joern Thyssen wrote:
> On Tue, May 25, 2004 at 03:26:44PM +0100, Jon Kinsey wrote
>
> > Or we could just remove it, is it helpful - after all I guess everything 
> > in the database is under the same schema?
>
> I can't remember why I made the schema... 

I'll remove it then - I've already made the changes locally to get 
sqlite working.

> > Perhaps this gets to the point I was trying to make - how do we see this 
> > being used?  I doubt many users are database experts, this is what I 
> > think is more likely:
>
> I'm not really fond of using the C APIs, neither sqlite nor any other.
> You could also argue  that most windows users have Access installed, so
> we should use that instead. 

Fair enough, you wrote the code and I like python anyway :-)

BTW, most windows pcs don't have MS Access and even less use it...
There's a much better argument for using sqlite - it's free, cross 
platform, easy to deploy and targeted at just this type of application.

> I think we should document the database-specific part of database.py
> really careful, and write about it in the manual, e.g., 
>
> Using gnubg and SQLite:
>
> Create the database by executing blah blah yada yada. Locate and modify
> database.py as follows: yada yada yada.

I think the database creation could be added to database.py, as everyone 
will have to do this at least once.  It should be possible to read the 
gnubg.sql file and execute each ';' separated command?  Then a 
relational create db type command could also be added...

> BTW, I don't imagine any users to use python to query the database. I
> would expect them to use the query tools available for their specific
> database. We can supply SQL queries to be pasted into MS Access,
> postgresql etc, but I don't think we need to write any python scripts to
> do that.

Perhaps, it's a bit error-prone though.  Obviously it's quite easy for 
someone who is used to databases, I don't think this is the majority of 
users.  I don't think the majority of users know python either so I 
guess most people will settle for the general info they get from the UI.

Jon