OODB vs RDBMS

[Thomas Guettler]

Hi,

most of the time I use ZODB/Durus to store my data. 

I like it, but I know that it has some weaknesses:
- only accesible from python
- I need to code your indexes for fast searching yourself.

I think about using a RDBMS for the next project. What I don't like
about RDBMS: If you need a list of values you need to create a new
table. Example: If you want to store several email addresses of one
customer, you need to create a new table.

Since the namespace if tablenames is flat, you soon have so many
tables, that it is hard to browse them.

Postgres has extensions which allows you to store arrays in a column. Is
this supported by the python binding? Are there other databases which
support this?

Are there OR-mappers (object relational mappers) which support lists in
a column?

How is the unicode support of the python bindings to RDBMSs? I don't
want to convert the results of a query to unicode myself.
Can you insert unicode strings into a SELECT statement?

Which database supports fulltext searches with a customized word
normalization? (All should be the same: str. str straße, strasse)

Which OR-mapper do you suggest?
Are there OR-mappers which support this: Subobjects are
fetched automatically while you access the object tree?
Example: One customer has N TroubleTicketItems:
customerobj=get_customer(...)  # First SELECT
for ticket in customerobj.tickets:  # (*)
    ...

(*) Second SELECT gets executed only if needed.

I now this message is vague, but maybe we can discuss the
pros/cons of "OODB vs RDBMS"

 Thomas


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Thomas Güttler, http://www.thomas-guettler.de/ http://www.tbz-pariv.de/
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