Coming from .NET and VB and C

[ToPostMustJoinGroup22]

I'm coming from a .NET, VB, C background.

C was good, and VB was better (with all of its libraries). Than .NET
came along and all the libraries you can require are ready to go. I
have no preference with MySQL or SQL, stored procedures or ad-hoc
queries.

SO, I'm interested in using my Google App space (free 500MB) to
develop a quick database application. Using Python. I found "Dive
Into Python" which I will be reading shortly.

Any suggestions for someone new to the scene like me?

 

[Simon Brunning]

Any suggestions for someone new to the scene like me?

Welcome!

There's a number of resources that you might find useful here:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide

 

[Eric Wertman]

Using Python. I found "Dive Into Python" which I will be reading shortly

The title of the book is good advice all by itself. Especially with
prior programming experience, you'll get started very quickly. What
will take longer is the assimilation of some of python's neater and
more idiomatic features, like list comprehensions and generators.
Also, the fact that strings are immutable threw me off a little the
first day or two.

If you stick with it, I think you'll find those little things to be
your favorite parts though. Certainly I use list comprehensions all
the time now, when I used to not use them at all.

In about 90% or more of cases, you can avoid doing things that you do
routinely in other languages.. mostly by iterating directly over
things you don't need counter variables or intermediate variable
names. In fact, I find myself going back through old code and
removing variables pretty frequently.

I'm sure there's a lot more. Personally I find it a lot of fun to code in.

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

ToPostMustJoinGroup22 a écrit :

I'm coming from a .NET, VB, C background.

C was good, and VB was better (with all of its libraries). Than .NET
came along and all the libraries you can require are ready to go. I
have no preference with MySQL or SQL, stored procedures or ad-hoc
queries.

SO, I'm interested in using my Google App space (free 500MB) to
develop a quick database application. Using Python. I found "Dive
Into Python" which I will be reading shortly.

Any suggestions for someone new to the scene like me?

The worst thing you could would be to try to write VB in Python. While
Python may not - for someone coming from more mainstream languages -
look as weird as Lisp or Haskell or etc..., it's really a totally
different beast. Lurking here, trying to answer other's persons
questions, and reading other peoples solution might be a good way to
learn idiomatic Python.

 

[Simon Brunning]

non-relational DBMS (if any such are still in use),

There certainly are...

So one question: what RDBMs are supported in that space?

.... and the Google's BigTable (see
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigTable>) is one of them.

 

[Marco Bizzarri]

Please note: MySQL is specific relational database management system
(RDBMs), which uses a dialect of structured query language (SQL). SQL by
itself is just a semi-standardized query language -- and can technically
be used to access non-relational DBMS (if any such are still in use),
though the query processor would be a pain to program (map a relational
join into a hierarchical DBMS schema? ugh).

So one question: what RDBMs are supported in that space?

The appearance is not an RDBMS, at least, maybe it is, but under the surface.

Looks more that you've persistent objects with a SQL-like language to
query them.

Regards
Marco

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Marco Bizzarri a écrit :

The appearance is not an RDBMS, at least, maybe it is, but under the surface.

Not AFAIK, cf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigTable

 

[Marco Bizzarri]

Not AFAIK, cf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigTable

Thanks for the pointer, Bruno... I wrote from my memory, but there is
some bank of it which need quick replace

 

[benlindelof]

BigTable looks great! There's a 3% performance hit for these types of
databases. However it makes up for it in other ways.

"Dive Into Python" seems to suggest there is less busy work, but I am
still looking into the GUI components of Python. Say, a grid of 10x10
tiles of PNGs.


_______________________________________________________________________________

have no preference with MySQL or SQL, stored procedures or ad-hoc
queries.

Please note: MySQL is specific relational database management
system
(RDBMs), which uses a dialect of structured query language (SQL). SQL
by
itself is just a semi-standardized query language -- and can
technically
be used to access non-relational DBMS (if any such are still in use),
though the query processor would be a pain to program (map a
relational
join into a hierarchical DBMS schema? ugh).

SO, I'm interested in using my Google App space (free 500MB) to
develop a quick database application. Using Python. I found "Dive
Into Python" which I will be reading shortly.

So one question: what RDBMs are supported in that space?

 

[sturlamolden]

I'm coming from a .NET, VB, C background.

Any suggestions for someone new to the scene like me?

Welcome! Unfortunately, you probably have a lot of bad habits to
unlearn. Don't use Python like another C, VB or Java. It will cause a
lot of grief, and you'll end up with the idea that Python is slow like
a slug. Python is more like Lisp or Haskell, but with a readable
syntax. There are list comprehensions, generator expressions,
dictionaries, sets, lists, list slicing, lambdas, map, reduce, filter,
closures, etc. They are there to be used, and be used a lot. Learning
to use Python efficiently is what has the steepest learning curve.

 

[timh]

Hi

What do you mean by a 3% performance hit? And compared to what ?

Any performance hit or for that matter
a performance improvement would very much dependant on the problem
domain
, how it maps to the data store and what you are trying to do with it,
and
your choice of algorithms.

T

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Could you please timh and belindelof learn to quote properly and stop
top-posting ?

TIA

 

[castironpi]

Welcome! Unfortunately, you probably have a lot of bad habits to
unlearn. Don't use Python like another C, VB or Java. It will cause a
lot of grief, and you'll end up with the idea that Python is slow like
a slug. Python is more like Lisp or Haskell, but with a readable
syntax. There are list comprehensions, generator expressions,
dictionaries, sets, lists, list slicing, lambdas, map, reduce, filter,
closures, etc. They are there to be used, and be used a lot. Learning
to use Python efficiently is what has the steepest learning curve.

Variable argument lists, first-class function objects.