About Databases...

[Ruben Baumann]

<andrea_gavana at tin.it> wrote in message 
news:mailman.290.1110580373.1799.python-list at python.org...
Hello NG,

   I am still quite a newbie with Python (I intensely use wxPython, anyway).
I would like to know what are, in your opinions, the best/faster databases
that I could use in Python (and, of course, I should be able to "link" 
everything
with a wxPython GUI)? Specifically, I work on Reservoir Simulation, and
usually I have to store a discrete/huge amount of data (it depends on the
oil field). As you may have understood, I know almost NOTHING about 
databases
;-)
In general, my data will be numeric (floats, integers). Will a binary 
storage
(if it is possible) reduce the size of the DB? And what about speed in 
storing/retrieving
data?

Thank you a lot for every suggestion.

Andrea.
==============================================================================
Hello Andrea.

One thing you should consider, maybe the MOST important - What kinds of 
reports are you/your bosses expecting to get out of your application?  Are 
you going to write the reports by hand?  They can be a pretty expensive 
proposition in terms of development time and energy.

Most RDBMS's meet your criteria of speed, numeric data, etc.  I would 
strongly encourage you to look into a database that can be accessed easily 
by some kind of report writer such as Crystal Reports, or MS-Access, or some 
of the other fine report writers out there.  Unless of course you plan to do 
all the heavy work of hand writing all your reports.  Your bosses may ask 
you to graph the data as well.  Oracle(if you can afford it), MS-SQLServer, 
MySQL, PostgreSQL, Even the Free MS-MSDE/SQL Express would work for you. 
Most report writers have hooks to these DBMS's, or can use ODBC to get to 
the data.

Granted, you have said that you know almost NOTHING about databases, but it 
sounds to me like your app is a prime candidate for one, so maybe it's time 
to learn. ;-)   And, in my experience, sometimes the smallest project can 
wind up a major project depending on how important or critical the need for 
the data and it's presentation is. And no matter what reports you produce, 
you'll always be called upon to produce more!

Good Luck!

Ruben