[clue-talk] Linux auto-install DB and other stuff

[Matt Gushee]

rex evans wrote:

> For the future, I am interested in 
> dicrete-event simulation packages TBD 
> and the "R" (calculation) language. 
> I am writing a simulator of my own, 
> which I may or may not continue; 
> it is teaching me a lot, in any case.

If you would like to be able to distribute a database with your 
program(s)--one that does not require any setup by the end user--I'd 
suggest looking at SQLite. It is an RDBMS which supports transactions 
and a large subset of SQL 92, has bindings in most popular programming 
languages, runs on many platforms including Windows, and has been placed 
in the public domain by its developers.

Important differences between SQLite and MySQL/PostgreSQL include:

   * SQLite databases are simply files. Thus, there is no server
     configuration to worry about. You can write programs that create and
     interact with SQLite databases, and as long as the SQLite library is
     installed, there is no separate setup required. This obviously is
     not suitable for all applications, but is often just the ticket when
     you need something simple. It also means that the security model is
     rather unsophisticated--in fact SQLite permissions are filesystem
     permissions.

   * SQLite is untyped. You can specify a datatype for a field, but
     SQLite doesn't enforce the type--it's just an annotation.

   * SQLite doesn't support stored procedures (I think).

There may be other differences, but those are some of the most 
important. As for robustness and scalability, I'm not sure, but SQLite 
claims to be able to handle quite large amounts of data. I haven't seen 
any independent verification of that.

-- 
Matt Gushee
The Reluctant Geek: http://matt.gushee.net/rg/
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