[DB-SIG] Remaining issues with DB API 1.1

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Hi everybody,

According to the proposed schedule for the DB API, today (1999-03-26)
is the Final Call deadline. We made some very good progress so far and I
would like to thank everybody who joined in.

Some open issues remain which should be settled before going
public with the new API spec (and my comments):

       · Require a constructor to take Unix ticks as input for timestamp
         values ? What about time (without date part) and date (without
         time part) values ? 

Well, you know my POV: ticks are a bad thing for serious DB interfacing
and there are ways to convert them to the broken down values needed for
the constructors.

       · Should we add additional constructor signatures to the API
         spec ? E.g. for monetary values (not defined in standard SQL
         btw). 

I suggest postponing this decision to the next spec release.

       · Are setinputsize, setoutputsize optional in the sense that the
         APIs itself may be left out by the module implementor or rather
         that they must be provided but may be implemented with void
         functionality. 

I guess they should always be available.

       · Naming of some of the values for the .paramstyle attribute:
         Andy Dustman proposed to change "percent" and "xpercent"
	 to "format" and "dictformat". I prefer "pyformat" instead of
         "dictformat"...

       · Should we extend the notion of "sequences" in .execute()
         to "objects providing __len__ and __getitem__ methods" ?
         See my reply to Andy Dustman for a detailed explanation
         of the benefits.

       · Add a section pointing out the changes from 1.0 to 1.1 and ways
         to port existing scripts to the updated API spec. 

Could someone help with this one ?!

       · Spell correct and grammar check the spec... 

Some additional infos and URLs:

Timeline:

	Final Call deadline:  1999-03-26
	Posting of the Spec:  1999-03-29

The current working version of the Spec. can always be found
at:

        http://starship.skyport.net/~lemburg/DatabaseAPI-1.1.html

The 1.0 Spec. is here:

        http://www.python.org/sigs/db-sig/DatabaseAPI.html

Greg's annotated version 1.1:

	http://www.lyra.org/greg/anno-DatabaseAPI-1.1.html

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg                               Y2000: 280 days left
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