ODBC module and strange date reference <...>

[Magnus Lycka]

dananrg at yahoo.com wrote:
> Been using the ODBC module for Python 2.1 

It might well become a problem that you are stuck with
a five year old Python version. Python 2.1 is no longer
a supported Python version. Support for 2.2 will probably
end soon.

Are you using an old version of ESRI software, or are
they shipping a product with an ancient version of
Python?

You can't really expect that third party product will
support Python 2.1 any longer. A lot of new software
take advantage of the new features in Python that came
in later versions. Current Python versions are also a
bit faster.

If I were you, I'd check with ESRI support if you can't
use a newer version of Python. I think it's possible.

Concerning mxODBC, you might want to have a second look
at it. I don't know your business context of course, but
if I understand correctly, it can be used for free for
inhouse use, and if that doesn't apply to your situation,
a licence might well be worth its price. If this is
something you will distribute to customers, I suspect
you can make a deal with eGenix and get a better price
than the normal site license. (It's a while since I
looked at their pricing, so I don't know if I'm making
sense...)

Anyway, I think the best option would be to get a newer
Python installed if that's reasonable, but I realize
that might cause some extra work if your code is to
run on a lot of machines...