how to write a line in a text file

[Calvin Spealman]

On 7/31/05, James Dennett <jdennett at acm.org> wrote:
> Peter Hansen wrote:
> 
> > Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> >
> > Given that ZODB and PySQLite are simply Python extension modules, which
> > get bundled by your builder tool and are therefore installed
> > transparently along with your app by your installer, this is a total
> > non-issue at least with those packages.
> >
> > After all, it's not 1970 any more. ;-)
> 
> Indeed; since 1970 we learned to prefer straightforward
> file formats where possible, reserving use of databases
> for structured data where the extra costs are justified.
> 
> Sometime maybe databases will get better to the point
> that we don't need to distinguish so much between them
> and filesystems, but we're not there yet.  Managing raw
> files, carefully, still has a place.
> 
> -- James

Filesystems are a horrible way to organize information, and even worse
at structuring it. The mentality that there are any benefits of
low-overhead the outweigh the benefits of minimal database layers,
such as ZODB, BSD DB, and SQLite, is a large part of the reason we are
still stuck with such a mess. Those "extra costs" are so minimal, that
you wouldn't even notice them, if you hadn't convinced yourself of
their presense before performing or researching any realy benchmarks.
A simple RDBMS can be much easier to work with than any flat file
format, will likely be far faster in processing the data, and has the
benefit of years of coding making the code that actually reads and
writes your data as fast and stable as possible.