So many things that need to be decided....

[Mike Meyer]

"Heather Stovold" <h_stovold at hotmail.com> writes:

> Wow - deciding to program in python sure requires a lot of decisions!

It wasn't for me.

> So far:
>
> I've decided on python for the programming language.
> I've decided on wxpython for the GUI....

Hmm. I started writing CGI apps, so I didn't need to choose a
GUI - at least not until later. I finally settled on PyQT, though I've
used TkInter as well.

> I've decided on DrPython for the Editor....

An editor for each language? Is that the kind of tower you get when
you start using IDEs? I just kept right on using the same text editor
I'd been using for the last 20 (now 30) years.

> I still need to decide on a database........   I've really only used Access,
> and my SQL skills aren't that great.  It would also need to be free....
> Any suggestions??

Access is just a way of talking to a database. Which is what most
Python database tools are - ways to talk to a back-end database.  If
you're going to be writing fairly traditional applications, this is
probably overkill. Doing web back ends, I needed to deal with
simultaneous access, so had to go this route. I chose PostGreSQL, but
I've worked with MySQL as well.

You might be better off with something that doesn't require a separate
server. Gadfly appears to qualify. There are probably other packages
that give you a DB-API or SQL interace to an internal database that
will serve your purpose.

I've worked with the berkeley db modules, which provides a way of
storing arbitrary chunks of memory on disk, using arbitrary chunks of
memory as a key. That may well be enough. The shelve module is the
easy way to use this.

> Am I going to need a program/package for a report writer?  or that might
> depend on the database I use?

That won't depend on the database. It will depend on what you want
your applications to do when it comes to generating reports - assuming
you generate any at all.

    <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.