I have noticed on the DB lists lately some concern about the future of Gadfly. I have been investigating a marvelous little open-source, no copyright, SQL engine called SQLite: An SQL Database Engine In A C Library. I am quite experienced with Python, reasonably experienced with Zope but a greenhorn at extending Python yet I had a crude but working Python extension module for SQLite up and running in 2 days (most of that time figuring out the Python extension conventions). I think Python needs a lightweight SQL engine as a standard module, and I think this would be a good Zope product candidate as well. I'm proposing SQLite as that engine. Here is the developer's feature list, taken from the link given above:

Implements a large subset of SQL92.
A complete database (with multiple tables and indices) is stored in a single disk file.
Atomic commit and rollback protect data integrity.
Small memory footprint: less than 20K lines of C code.
Four times faster than PostgreSQL. Twice as fast as SQLite 1.0.
Very simple C/C++ interface requires the use of only three functions and one opaque structure.
TCL bindings included.
A TCL-based test suite provides near 100% code coverage.
Self-contained: no external dependencies.
Built and tested under Linux and Win2K.
Sources are uncopyrighted. Use for any purpose.
The SQLite source code is 35% comment. These comments are another important source of information.

The author, D. Richard Hipp, is a computer science Ph.D. who knows his stuff. This is not green software, it is well designed and tested. It was first released in May 2000 and is very actively updated and supported.

Thanks for listening.

Bill Trenker
Internet Applications Developer
Kelowna, BC, Canada

"The commandments of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are clear, giving insight to life . . . For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." (Psalm 19:8, 1John 5:3) torahteacher.com