[Tutor] suitability to task

Darren Reynolds dreynolds26@cogeco.ca
Tue, 20 Aug 2002 20:55:57 -0400


just doing some planning work on a project i'm going to be doing for 
myself, and was wondering if ppl might be able to tell me if python (or 
another language) would be better suited for it.  i'm also not decided 
yet on what form the data storage is going to take place.  the program 
isn't going to be very complex (mp3 database / indexing), and is going 
to run in the console as opposed to graphical interface.  in essence its 
operation will be this ...

-- will do an 'ls -R /cdrom' (or some other command that will give me 
recirsive listing of all files and directories on the cd) and re-direct 
output to a temporary flat-text file
-- will name the text file based on user input
-- once disc has been read, text file will be processed to read the 
following information; artist, album, year pf release, # of tracks per 
album, track names, format, disc "name" (as entered by user ... as all 
the cds will have consistent layout, program shouldn't have a problem 
picking these pieces out or knowing when new album listing has started)
-- take this information and place it into data storage (both flat-text 
file storage and mysql have been suggested by friends of mine)
-- remove the temporary text file once data has been successfully 
committed to storage
-- will also have options for user to search indexed cds by; artist. 
album, track name
-- will pipe search results to screen (through pager such as less) and 
indicate to user all criteria matches and which cds the tracks / albums 
can be found (the user entered "name" for each cd will be used as the 
indicator as to track location)

i don't see this as being terribly complicated to get done, but as i'm 
no programmer i'm not really sure if python would be ideally suited to a 
task like this ... or if i'm going to give myself fits trying to get it 
done ... :)

so, if anyone has any in advance "caveats" for me to look out for, or 
could make any suggestions about data storage ... i'm all "ears" ... :)

thanks in advance ...

darren