[Zope] Somewhat OT: Interbase DB

bobc@p-wave.com bobc@p-wave.com
Sun, 7 May 2000 23:29:39 -0400


Date sent:      	Sun, 07 May 2000 18:49:08 -0400
From:           	Chris McDonough <chrism@digicool.com>
Organization:   	Digital Creations
To:             	bobc@p-wave.com
Copies to:      	isparks@wmute.u-net.com, zope@zope.org
Subject:        	Re: [Zope] Somewhat OT: Interbase DB

Hi Chris,

There's a post at http://weblogs.userland.com/qube/discuss/msgReader$497 from 
Markus Kemper of Interbase.com which indicates that they would like to work with the 
Zope community and are also looking for Python/Zope programmers. Perhaps they 
could spearhead the effort to get the Python libraries up to date for Interbase 6.0. I saw 
another post which said they got no reply from the author of Kinterbasdb, so perhaps he 
is no longer active. If I was a little farther along on Python programming myself, I'd give 
it a try. Come to think of it, it might be good training.

Bob Corriher
P-Wave.com

> After a few hours of futzing around and trying to get Kinterbasdb (the
> python DB-API2 module for Interbase) working against Interbase 4.0 for
> linux, I have the following report:
> 
> - Kinterbasdb will not compile against the libraries distributed with the
> beta of IB6 'SuperServer'.
> 
> - Kinterbasdb compiles wonderfully against the libraries included with
> Interbase 4.  However, because I'm running Red Hat with glibc 2.1.2, and
> the interbase libraries are statically linked against an older libc, upon
> attempting to use the Kinterbasdb module, I get:
> 
> ImportError: ./_kinterbasdb.so: undefined symbol: _xstat
> 
> I suppose some waving of dead chickens over the Makefile could solve
> this.  After careful consideration, I don't care.
> 
> - Evidently Kinterbasdb compiles against Interbase 5.X (which I would
> presume is linked against a later glibc), but Interbase 5.X is not
> available for download (it's still a commercial product).
> 
> I'm not real keen on futzing more with this.  I hope Alexander K. (the
> author of Kinterbasdb) revs the code soon to compile against Interbase 6. 
> Until then, I give up.
> 
> bobc@p-wave.com wrote:
> > 
> > Interbase 6.0 will be open source for all platforms according to the
> > open source Q&A at interbase.com :
> > http://www.interbase.com/open/community/opensource_qa.html. The current
> > version (5.6) is still commercial however. The 6.0 version comes with a
> > user defined function library which includes date functions (I had the
> > same problem when I started to use Interbase - found a UDF library, from
> > Canada I think - NT only however) It also now has an Extract operator to
> > work with the datetime datatype. I've been using Interbase since version
> > 4.0 (about four years). I have it in use with up to 35 users
> > simultaneously. I don't know how well it would scale to very large
> > systems. I also would like to see an Interbase DA for Zope. I'm not
> > enough of a Python programmer yet to do it myself, but I might have to
> > bite the bullet and try.
> > 
> > Bob Corriher
> > 
> > Original Message
> > 
> > Message: 55
> > Reply-To: "Ian Sparks" <isparks@wmute.u-net.com>
> > From: "Ian Sparks" <isparks@wmute.u-net.com>
> > To: <bkc@murkworks.com>, <zope@zope.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Zope] Interbase DB
> > Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 18:42:54 +0100
> > charset="iso-8859-1"
> > 
> > This may not help at all but I know there is a Perl interface to
> > Interbase - saw it at www.interbase.com a while back.
> > 
> > Can I ask why the interest in Interbase over, say, PostgreSQL
> > 
> > I've been using Interbase on NT for a few years now. It's stable, zero
> > maintenance, hard-to-kill and has decent features like triggers, stored
> > procedures etc. The one thing that lets it down is the built-in
> > functions - you really need to get a User Defined Functions (UDF)
> > library from day 0 and install it to do any sort of date manipulation
> > for instance. My problem with this is that it makes your DB code hard to
> > port between platforms - that UDF lib you use on NT won't work on Linux
> > - esp. since UDF libs are often written in Delphi and thus tied to Win32
> > (at least until Kylix is released).
> > 
> > I also notice that Interbase don't seem to offer a free version to NT
> > users - that's because they have so many NT customers who already bought
> > licences who will want refunds!
> > 
> > One final notice is that Interbase only became Open Source after its key
> > members of its development team walked out in protest over the way that
> > the parent company was pushing (or not) the product. How can
> > Interbase.com turn this crisis into an opportunity? OpenSource it!
> > 
> > - Ian Sparks.
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brad Clements" <bkc@murkworks.com>
> > To: <zope@zope.org>
> > Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:25 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Zope] Interbase DB
> > 
> > On 5 May 2000, at 9:38, Olivier Deckmyn wrote:
> > 
> > > When looking for Interbase on python.org, one can find :
> > >
> > > http://www.python.org/topics/database/modules.html
> > >
> > > where there seem to exists at least one python module to connect to
> > > Interbase RDBMS ...
> > >
> > > This could be a starting point for a DAInterbase?
> > 
> > Yes, thats Kinterbasdb. I wrote  to the author a few weeks ago, but
> > never received a reply.
> > 
> > Brad Clements,                bkc@murkworks.com   (315)268-1000
> > http://www.murkworks.com                          (315)268-9812 Fax
> > netmeeting: ils://ils.murkworks.com               AOL-IM: BKClements
> > 
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> -- 
> Chris McDonough
> Digital Creations
> Publishers of Zope - http://www.zope.org