[DB-SIG] which free database to use (and a few other questions)

[Cary Collett]

> 
> I'm looking for some advice on which database (and which database
> module) to use.  I need a free database for several data
> collection/analysis projects, including TCP packet trace and HTTP
> server log analysis.  A typical data set will be 50-100 MB.
> 
> It looks like I can choose between miniSQL and MySQL, but I don't how
> good either product is.  Can anyone recommend one over the other?
> I've spent an hour or two looking at miniSQL and it seems to provide
> adequate functionality (but I don't feel like I have a particularly
> informed decision).

>From a feature and performance standpoint, MySQL beats mSQL hands
down. I started using mSQL and later moved to MySQL and have been
much happier.

I think the user community for MySQL is more active as well, but I
haven't really kept up with mSQL, so who knows.

> 
> I'm also curious about the state of the Python modules for each of
> these databases.  The miniSQL module doesn't conform to the DB API.
> Is this a problem?  It looks like it would be easy enough to use the
> mSQL C library to implement an extension module.  (But the fact that
> it looks pretty easy makes we wonder why no one else has?  Perhaps
> there are some problems with mSQL...)
> 
> I started looking at the MySQL module and stopped right away; the
> copyright notice is downright scary: "Note that any product, process
> or technology described in this software may be the subject of other
> Intellectual Property rights reserved by FGA bitart and are not
> licensed hereunder."  Doesn't sound like free software to me.
> On the other hand, maybe MySQL also has a good C library that would
> make it easy to do a new extension module.  Any thoughts?

You could also use ODBC to talk to MySQL if you're using Pythonwin.

MySQL's C library is very similar to mSQL's and the MySQL module
is based off of the mSQL module for this reason. IANACP (I am not a
C programmer), but the API looks perfectly reasonable to me.



Cary

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