[Pythoncard-users] Priority One - Object Persistence

Okay, folks. I'm ready to help tackle something that has been on my to-do
list for a while now. And that is object persistence in Pythoncard. In my
opinion, this is the one feature that could make Pythoncard different from
every other development tool out there, and get us as close to Hypercard as
we need to be to make all the former Hypercard developers happy. (Not that I
can can speak for them, having never used Hypercard myself).

With this mesage I'm hoping to get the attention of anyone else who is
interested in pursuing this. My idea is to use either MetaKit or ZODB and
push it until it breaks. Sure, I like mySQL and PostgreSQL and Oracle and
all the other SQL databases out there. But that isn't my goal. My goal is
Python object persistence using native Python.

I think I'm going to look closely at MetaKit and ZODB and then pick one.
I'll post my assessments to your list as I go. My immediate thought is that,
while I'd like to go with ZODB, I may have to pick something like MetaKit in
the short term. At least for my own app. I need something that is feature
complete. ZODB is very nice, but hardly anyone is using it outside of Zope.
I think it really needs to be part of Python, which is where they are
heading. But that will take time. On the surface MetaKit sounds more
complete. And the list of Python contributors is quite comforting - Cameron
Laird, Gordon McMillan, Christian Tismer.

I do also like the Webware stuff, but their object persistence is yet
another method, and has been developed primarily for mySQL. In some ways
this is good, in that you do get some benefits from mySQL, but it adds to
the complexity of what has to be installed. The other appeal to the Webware
MiddleKit approach is that it could potentially support both a
Webware/brower app and a Pythoncard/wxPython app from the same object
database.

If the goal of Guido and company is to make a persistence database part of
the core library, then I think it is in our interests to be one of the first
tools to work with that. The question is, how much attention will this get
and how serious are they about doing this. The lack of a Windows compiled
install of standaloneZODB sucks royally and they don't seem to be in a hurry
to create one.

So MetaKit could be a stepping stone on the way to ZODB. Or we might create
a layer that works with either/both. I've played with ZODB so I know what
some of the issues are. I'll have to look at MetaKit as well.

We talked about all this once before, and came up with some ideas for a
sample application. But I didn't have time available to work on it. Now I
do. Ready for some fun?

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Patrick K. O'Brien
Orbtech