Postgres PL/Python

[Mike Meyer]

Ksenia Marasanova <ksenia.marasanova at gmail.com> writes:
> I wonder if anyone on this list is using  Python as Postgres
> procedural language. I can't find a place for it i my mind. How would
> a typical MVC web application benefit from it  (besides performance)?

Your typical MVC web application hasn't got the foggiest about whether
the code that handles it's HTTP request is running in a stored
procedure or a client, and has no way of even finding out. So there's
no way they can "take advantage" of them.

At first glance, the performance difference is as likely to be
negative as it is to be positive, so avoid premature optimizations.

> I understand from the docs that Postgres 7.4 has PL/PythonU -
> unlimited functionality. It sounds like I have the whole Python
> available in Postgres. That means big parts of application logic can
> be moved to stored procedures, and dummy SQL layer becomes something
> else... sounds scary. Any opinions on this?

Sounds like something that's good for your job security.

That you can now do stored procedures in Python shouldn't have any
effect on whether you decide to implement some function in your
application as a stored procedure or not. Unless there's something
really screwy about PL/Python, anyway.

Whether or not you use stored procedures is almost religious in
nature. Google for "stored procedures", and you'll find opinions
ranging from "never use them at all" to "use them whenever you
possibly can."

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