Perl / Sybase

[usawargamer]

I used to program in C and Perl (up until 2001) (a little C++ and Java
too). Since then I've been a Business Analyst and only coded in VBA/
Excel and written some SQL queries. (we use Sybase)

I am thinking I will either relearn Perl or learn Python (I've heard
nice things about it). Roughly speaking - I want to query the
database, and perform some calculations on the results. Its a pain
doing this in a Sybase stored procedure (basically implementing a
bunch of Excel formulas)


1. What database interface is commonly used? I used to use Sybperl,
not DBI. Is Sybperl still around, and /or outdated?
Is there some good documentation on it, plus some examples of good/
useful code?


2. How difficult is it to install Perl on PC/Windows
machines? I want others to be able to run my small programs.
(I used to runPerl on UNIX and never had to worry about any
installation)

 

[smallpond]

I used to program in C and Perl (up until 2001) (a little C++ and Java
too). Since then I've been a Business Analyst and only coded in VBA/
Excel and written some SQL queries. (we use Sybase)

I am thinking I will either relearn Perl or learn Python (I've heard
nice things about it). Roughly speaking - I want to query the
database, and perform some calculations on the results. Its a pain
doing this in a Sybase stored procedure (basically implementing a
bunch of Excel formulas)

1. What database interface is commonly used? I used to use Sybperl,
not DBI. Is Sybperl still around, and /or outdated?
Is there some good documentation on it, plus some examples of good/
useful code?

2. How difficult is it to install Perl on PC/Windows
machines? I want others to be able to run my small programs.
(I used to runPerl on UNIX and never had to worry about any
installation)

Many people think Python is easier to learn, so not a bad choice.
The advantage of Perl is that there are already libraries for
anything that you might want to do at search.cpan.org.

Use Activestate Perl on Windows (free). Buy their development
tools if you plan to do a lot of Perl work.

 

[Joost Diepenmaat]

I used to program in C and Perl (up until 2001) (a little C++ and Java
too). Since then I've been a Business Analyst and only coded in VBA/
Excel and written some SQL queries. (we use Sybase)

I am thinking I will either relearn Perl or learn Python (I've heard
nice things about it). Roughly speaking - I want to query the
database, and perform some calculations on the results. Its a pain
doing this in a Sybase stored procedure (basically implementing a
bunch of Excel formulas)


1. What database interface is commonly used? I used to use Sybperl,
not DBI. Is Sybperl still around, and /or outdated?
Is there some good documentation on it, plus some examples of good/
useful code?

DBI is really *the* perl database interface. Though I haven't used
sybase at all, looking at the dates of the latest releases can tell you
a lot about where the maintenance and new features effort is going:
DBD::Sybase (the sybase DBI driver): 31 aug 2008 vs sybperl 9 apr 2005.

2. How difficult is it to install Perl on PC/Windows
machines? I want others to be able to run my small programs.
(I used to runPerl on UNIX and never had to worry about any
installation)

activestate's activeperl is probably the easiest to install on
windows. other significant contenders are strawberry perl (a community
effort to provide an easy to install base perl + CPAN installer) and
cygwin perl (based on the good, but fairly heavy cygwin "unix
compatability layer" for win32).

Googling for them should turn up the relevant sites. You may want to try
a few to see which ones work best for you, especially if you need sybase
integration.