[Zope] Somewhat OT: Interbase DB

Chris McDonough chrism@digicool.com
Sun, 07 May 2000 18:49:08 -0400


After a few hours of futzing around and trying to get Kinterbasdb (the
python DB-API2 module for Interbase) working against Interbase 4.0 for
linux, I have the following report:

- Kinterbasdb will not compile against the libraries distributed with
the beta of IB6 'SuperServer'.

- Kinterbasdb compiles wonderfully against the libraries included with
Interbase 4.  However, because I'm running Red Hat with glibc 2.1.2, and
the interbase libraries are statically linked against an older libc,
upon attempting to use the Kinterbasdb module, I get:

ImportError: ./_kinterbasdb.so: undefined symbol: _xstat

I suppose some waving of dead chickens over the Makefile could solve
this.  After careful consideration, I don't care.

- Evidently Kinterbasdb compiles against Interbase 5.X (which I would
presume is linked against a later glibc), but Interbase 5.X is not
available for download (it's still a commercial product).

I'm not real keen on futzing more with this.  I hope Alexander K. (the
author of Kinterbasdb) revs the code soon to compile against Interbase
6.  Until then, I give up.

bobc@p-wave.com wrote:
> 
> Interbase 6.0 will be open source for all platforms according to the open source Q&A at
> interbase.com : http://www.interbase.com/open/community/opensource_qa.html. The
> current version (5.6) is still commercial however. The 6.0 version comes with a user
> defined function library which includes date functions (I had the same problem when I
> started to use Interbase - found a UDF library, from Canada I think - NT only however) It
> also now has an Extract operator to work with the datetime datatype. I've been using
> Interbase since version 4.0 (about four years). I have it in use with up to 35 users
> simultaneously. I don't know how well it would scale to very large systems. I also would
> like to see an Interbase DA for Zope. I'm not enough of a Python programmer yet to do
> it myself, but I might have to bite the bullet and try.
> 
> Bob Corriher
> 
> Original Message
> 
> Message: 55
> Reply-To: "Ian Sparks" <isparks@wmute.u-net.com>
> From: "Ian Sparks" <isparks@wmute.u-net.com>
> To: <bkc@murkworks.com>, <zope@zope.org>
> Subject: Re: [Zope] Interbase DB
> Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 18:42:54 +0100
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> This may not help at all but I know there is a Perl interface to Interbase
> -
> saw it at www.interbase.com a while back.
> 
> Can I ask why the interest in Interbase over, say, PostgreSQL
> 
> I've been using Interbase on NT for a few years now. It's stable, zero
> maintenance, hard-to-kill and has decent features like triggers, stored
> procedures etc. The one thing that lets it down is the built-in functions
> -
> you really need to get a User Defined Functions (UDF) library from day 0
> and
> install it to do any sort of date manipulation for instance. My problem
> with
> this is that it makes your DB code hard to port between platforms - that
> UDF
> lib you use on NT won't work on Linux - esp. since UDF libs are often
> written in Delphi and thus tied to Win32 (at least until Kylix is
> released).
> 
> I also notice that Interbase don't seem to offer a free version to NT
> users - that's because they have so many NT customers who already bought
> licences who will want refunds!
> 
> One final notice is that Interbase only became Open Source after its key
> members of its development team walked out in protest over the way that
> the
> parent company was pushing (or not) the product. How can Interbase.com
> turn
> this crisis into an opportunity? OpenSource it!
> 
> - Ian Sparks.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad Clements" <bkc@murkworks.com>
> To: <zope@zope.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [Zope] Interbase DB
> 
> On 5 May 2000, at 9:38, Olivier Deckmyn wrote:
> 
> > When looking for Interbase on python.org, one can find :
> >
> > http://www.python.org/topics/database/modules.html
> >
> > where there seem to exists at least one python module to connect to
> > Interbase RDBMS ...
> >
> > This could be a starting point for a DAInterbase?
> 
> Yes, thats Kinterbasdb. I wrote  to the author a few weeks ago, but
> never received a reply.
> 
> Brad Clements,                bkc@murkworks.com   (315)268-1000
> http://www.murkworks.com                          (315)268-9812 Fax
> netmeeting: ils://ils.murkworks.com               AOL-IM: BKClements
> 
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-- 
Chris McDonough
Digital Creations
Publishers of Zope - http://www.zope.org