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Date:      Tue, 27 Jan 1998 19:33:30 +1000 (GST)
From:      Patrick Kelly <pkelly@kuentos.guam.net>
To:        freebsd-database@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Postgres and Solid
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSD/.3.91.980127184757.20826A-100000@saba.kuentos.guam.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980126231922.252v-100000@thelab.hub.org>

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On Mon, 26 Jan 1998, The Hermit Hacker wrote:

> On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Patrick Kelly wrote:
> 
> > I was using (briefly) postgreSQL, but got frustrated with the limited SQL.
> 
> 	Limited SQL? *raised eyebrows*  What version were you using?

I was using 6.1.1 (still am).  A cute little application that we did with 
it can be seen at 

	http://weather.guam.net/
	http://weather.guam.net/charts.html

I did a good bit of work to bundle FastCGI, Tcl and the Postgres TCL 
access together.  That's described at

	http://bolts.guam.net/fpgtcl
	http://photo.net/wtr/cheap-tcl.html (duplicate +comments at end)

There are several things that I really like about Postgres.  The TCL
extensions are really nice and clean.  The "psql" command line interface
is really cool.  (Especially compared to Solid's "solsql" which is
absolute bare minimum functionality on FreeBSD.) Also, I was doing some
Java stuff against Postgres and that worked real well, too.  (That was a
web explorer for http://search.micronesia.net [site is very incomplete/
inactive currently].) I started looking at doing extensions for Postgres,
but decided that it would be better to not get into that.  That would
raise issues with keeping up with new versions/melding code, etc.  And, I 
didn't want the risk of my breaking the database server myself.

So, I started checking out Solid.  ODBC support on PC's is really nice to 
have.  I paid extra to get JDBC, cuz I want it.  My bill was $1193 (if 
memory serves) for WebEngine + JDBC + 2 client connections.  According to 
the licensing, this gives me unlimited connections from the machine where 
the server sits, plus up to 2 connections from clients on other 
machines.

I grabbed the Perl DBI stuff and started playing with that.  I've done a
lot of Perl4 stuff, and moving to DBI means Perl5.  It seems that Perl has
become a monster, and it makes me nervous.  I'm afraid that I'm gonna miss
something, or not know something that I should, and screw something up. 
(I'm tired of breaking things.) So, now, I'm mapping the core ODBC library
calls into TCL.  I've never worked with ODBC before, but it looks like
(from the Solid documentation) that the stuff I'm building will work where
ever I can find an ODBC library.  I like TCL because it's simpler and more
easily groked than much of Perl.  The plan is to get a webserver with TCL
built in for the front end, but I haven't started working on the webserver
yet.  I know it's possible because of NeoWebScript (http://www.neosoft.com). 

I really like Postgres, but it seemed that Solid's limitations were more
easily overcome than Postgres'.  Also, ODBC is a real plus.  If it had to
be free, I would be using Postgres.  But where I'm at, $1k looked like a
good deal. 

patrick



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