Python does not play well with others

[Paul Rubin]

Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> writes:
> > languages do.  PHP hosting providers don't have to install a separate
> > PHP to MySQL interface gizmo as far as I know.
> 
> 	Really? Then why does the MySQL AB download site at
> http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php/ list both a
> "Connector/PHP" AND a "native MySQL driver" for PHP? Along with ODBC,
> .NET, and two variations of Java connectors.

Beats me.  It does look like PHP5 has stopped bundling the MySQL
client library for licensing reasons:

 http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.databases.php#faq.databases.mysql.php5

It does say "there will always be MySQL support in PHP of one kind or
another" but I'm not sure what that means in this context.

On the other hand if MySQL itself supplies the client library, that's
almost as good.  Remember that this isn't purely about minimizing the
number of downloads.  It's also about minimizing the number of places
to download from, i.e. the number of different development entities
one has to deal with.

So if you're using Python with MySQL, and you can get everything you
need from python.org and mysql.com, then even if it takes multiple
downloads it's better than having to get additional stuff from random
third party sites, especially when Python's own docs haven't said
where to get the stuff.

Therefore, if someone can persuade mysql.com to offer downloadable
MySQL client drivers for Python at the same place where they supply
the PHP drivers, that's better than the current situation where the
drivers come from some totally unrelated party.