Database Programming

[francois lepoutre]

Hi,

We have used both environments extensively over the past 2 years
to develop commercial stuff. The portal stuff is written in python
but the admin interface is vfp-driven (could have been delphi as well).

A personal feeling:
- python is the way to go for sophisticated web-based database application
(the combo we use includes apache+python+modpthon+mxodbc,
it allows for effective  multiplatform development: win32+linux),
... for simpler stuff i'd expect that asp or php are leaner alternatives,

- vfp (currently in version 7-8 coming soon) still have a considerable edge
in terms of productivity over python if you need to develop non-trivial
data-intensive win32-only apps. Delphi shines too. Of course.

You can work it out in the opposite direction:

-build you web-based things in vfp
(See http://www.west-wind.com/webconnection/),
- build classical data-intensive c/s applications in python
(See http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/index.php or even
www.wxpython.org to
.
But all in all, vfp and python have very distinctive strengths and
weaknesses.
Python plain better for web stuff and vfp way cleaner for data-driven admin
win32 UIs.

Unless you prefer java (no experience there),  python is REALLY the way to
go for
the http production (the portal thing). It is platform-independant. A
critical asset.

Because vfp is proprietary stuff and python syntax just plain great, we'd
love to transfer
the whole admin stuff to python-only, pyqt look promising. But this is still
unrealistic to-day.
We are still significantly more productive in vfp when building traditionnal
2-tiers apps.
Possibly in a couple of years.

These are personal opinions only...

Francis

"Otis Belton" <obelton at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3875fcac.0211260752.60e2e457 at posting.google.com...
> Has anyone used Python to develop a commercial quality database
> program? What is the advantage of using Python vs a program like
> Foxpro. Any advise is appreciated.