Re: Confusion over Python drivers

On Feb 6, 2010, at 5:51 PM, Josh Berkus wrote:
>> Finally, I just don't see the existing (often PG specific) goals that I have in mind for it appealing to the
majorityof [web framework/abstraction] users. 
>
> What are those goals?

I think the most interesting one that has yet to be implemented is fast, multiple destination COPY support. Currently,
COPYis supported, but a bytes() object is allocated for each row, so it's currently not efficient for moving
data(pg-to-pgETL sans the T? =). While some C is still needed to make it properly efficient, it's primarily to keep
trackof the COPY's state and to update stats. This is pretty useless to a django user... Well, I suppose it might be
interestingif COPY OUT could target [or transform into] JSON, but idk... 

The general, ongoing goal is to implement and document *convenient* Python interfaces to PostgreSQL features. A,
perhapsuninteresting, case being "supporting" advisory locks. I was thinking a context manager, but it might just be
somethingas trivial as an additional method on the connection(very simple/direct binding). 

Some "fuzzy" goals: twisted support, some asynchronous interfaces, and greater user control over type I/O. The first,
twisted,mostly interests me as an exercise. The second, async interfaces, scares me as it took me some time just to
feel"not unhappy" with the blocking APIs. The third will probably happen, but it's going to be a while. 

I also have some goals not directly related to a driver. postgresql.unittest is currently only used internally, but I
hopeto document it some day soon so that people can write Python unittest.TestCase's that auto-magically build out a
targetcluster(~pg_regress/pgTap for Python?). Well, it works, but it's not documented and the APIs haven't been given
muchthought. Generally, basic cluster management tools for Python. (At one point I tried to write a programmer's HBA
editor,but I think I hurt myself trying to figure out rule reduction.. That is, it was trying to be smarter than
"insert/deleterule at position x".) 

Well, these are the ones that come to mind, atm, but I don't think there's much beyond them.