Is Python any good with MySQL?

[Keith MacDonald]

Alex,

Thanks for the information, but here's what I got when I tried to build
MySQLdb on Windows 2000, with Visual C++ 6:

LINK : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol init_mysqlmodule

None of the files in MySQLdb-0.3.0b2.tar.gz define or reference that symbol,
so I don't know what to do about it.  I have found a pre-built version for
Windows, in MySQLdb-0.2.1-windows.zip, but that's for a different release.

When I tried mxODBC through the MySQL interface, none of its attributes,
such as connect, were found.  When I tried its Windows interface, I was
informed that MySQL does not support transactions, and then the process
aborted.

What I need is a solution, but I keep coming up against problems that I
simply don't have time to solve.

I can't argue about the MySQL interface in Perl being in a separate module,
but the difference is that ActiveState have "adopted" one, so all I had to
do was install ActiveState Perl, try out a couple of samples, and I was on
my way.  The amount of time that I have already wasted just trying to get
started with Python is more than it would have taken to write the complete
application in Perl, much though I dislike using it.  Actually, now that
I've put it like that, I think I'll do it in C++, or I'll never get the job
finished!

- Keith


"Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8u6bmi02cuv at news2.newsguy.com...
> "Keith MacDonald" <keith at nojunk.textpad.com> wrote in message
> news:fpwN5.6470$Fi.20998 at NewsReader...
> > I've been successfully using Perl for web site development, but don't
> really
> > like it, as it is so baroque.  All the different ways it has to achieve
> the
> > same ends makes it very difficult to follow anyone elses code.  It
> certainly
> > isn't self-documenting!
> >
> > At first inspection, Python seems a much cleaner language, but I'm
> > disappointed about its lack of inbuilt support for databases.  This is
> such
> > a fundamental requirement nowadays that it is worrying that it has been
> left
> > to 3rd party add-ons.  I need to be able to get up and running quickly,
on
>
> Is Perl any different in this regard?  I don't think so!  Both
> Perl and Python include built-in support for 'dbm'-style databases,
> and specify standard API's for interfacing to relational databases
> but leave the implementation of those API's to add-on modules
> ("3rd party" ones, in a sense).
>
>
> Regarding Python/MySQL specifically, I have no direct experience,
> but clearly one possibility is MySQLdb:
>
> http://dustman.net/andy/python/MySQLdb/0.3.0
>
> (the following URL...:
> http://www.faqts.com/knowledge-base/view.phtml/aid/4188/fid/395/lang/
> points to a pre-built Windows binary of this module, in case you
> lack a compiler on Windows to build the binary from sources),
>
> and there are others.
>
>
> > Before I give in and go back to Perl, would anyone care to reassure me
> that
> > Python really is suitable for web site development with MySQL, and point
> me
> > at some documentation which will help me get started?
>
> The docs at, e.g.,
>
http://www.biostat.washington.edu/biostat/computing/DebDocs/python-mysqldb/M
> ySQLdb.html
> seem reasonably good although concise; but, as they themselves
> say, "The DB API specification should be your primary guide for using
> this module", and they link you to
> http://www.python.org/topics/database/DatabaseAPI-2.0.html
> which is a detailed reference of the standard Python DB API,
> release 2.0 (the MySQLdb specific docs don't repeat that,
> they just give version-specific supplementary info!).
>
> You'll find some simple examples of Python DB API use at
> http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/python/writing/DB-API.html
> and it shouldn't be hard to use them to try out any DB API
> compliant module.
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>