SLAG Advice solicitation needed:

[Net Llama!]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Ben Duncan wrote:

> Ok, I am moving right along with SLAG (My OSS AppGen replacement system).
>
> Now, I am at a crucial step. Choosing the back-end data file access methods for
> the Applications to use.
>
> Keeping in mind, SLAG is designed for small and medium sized business. It has a
> philosophy of keeping it simple (the current programming style is very FoxPro like).
> System admin needs to be kept very minimal.
>
> So far they choices run the gamete of :
>
> File Managers:
>
> VBISAM - A robust ISAM file manager with multi-key support.
> SQLite - an embedded SQL file manager.
> Xbase and XBaseSql and Open Source Xbase and Xbase SQL embedded
> Sleepycat - The transactional BSD ISAM file manager
>
>
> OR
>
> SQL databases:
>
> Postgress
> Firebird
> CA's OSS Ingress
> MySql - geee, WHO does not know about this one?
>
> Any Suggestions out there?
> Once the file access method is decided, it will be very difficult to change
> styles, so it comes down to "file managers" or SQL? And of choice of the two
> methods, which one would you start with ....

If you're looking for a near-zero maintanence solution, then you
definitely don't want a SQL DB.  Sleepycat (and its cousins) are basically
zero maintanence, unless of course there is some kind of corruption, at
which point you're pretty well screwed, cause recovery is non-trivial, and
usually quite painful & time consuming.

I think this comes down to risk analysis.  Either you decide that you want
to have a solution that is easy to recover or a solution that is easy to
maintain.  I don't think you can get both with the options you listed
(which are really the only FOSS that i'm aware of for this task).


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                                netllama at linux-sxs.org
Linux Step-by-step & TyGeMo                  http://netllama.ipfox.com