Jochem Maas wrote:

> shouldn't SQL be _the_ abstraction layer? think about it for a while :-)

100% agree - now convince Microsoft, MySQL, Postgres and on yes Firebird
to follow the standard - even if it is 2000 pages of bullshit :(

> indeed use a transaction - but it still means this logic is in php, meaning
> that alternative interfaces to the db _must_ replicate the logic.
> (not doing so would damage the integrity of data.)

Other engines are catching up, and again you are right. But the same
cross checks can be applied in general. Moving some of these functions
into stored procedures would be nice, and is not actually a problem with
ADOdb. It could map things further if required.

> I really wanted to take a look a bitweaver - Im interested how it would go about
> solving the 'gimme a prizedraw management tool' question that I got put to me,
> as in how much and what kind of code would I need to write in order create the custom
> app (assuming I already had a 'site' running for the given client i.e. stuff like
> page layout, base functionality, etc is taken care of)

There has been much discussion on bitweaver on the pros and cons of
using the abstraction layer, and it does add overhead, but looking at
the crud in the code that has been imported, simply tidying that up has
produced a stable fast base. In fact the system is so tidy that
Christian added the PEARdb abstraction layer in a few hours! And it will
be worth the exercise of stripping the ADOdb code to provide a native
Firebird layer instead - just to see the speed difference - but what we
have works fine.

The Release 2 code has taken the final step of ditching the tikiwiki
original base, since none of that code really exists now, and it will
even run WITHOUT my having to add double quotes to every field and table
name :)

The MAIN thing that has come out of the various 'disagreements' is an
expandable shell where you can take things like 'prizedraw' and produce
a package with probably 90% of the code already available. It will
install (and reinstall) with little work, and can pick up all the basic
facilities - such us user/group management with no effort at all.

One of the main pushes at the moment is to get zen cart ( was oscommerce
) running as bitcommerce. THEY had dropped the abstraction layer, but
the code base is so 'integrated', that pulling it back apart has taken
time. The result is a working system that is slowly moving to be able to
take advantage of the rich theme management that is another core feature
of bitweaver!

We just need a few more Firebird people using it to keep up the pressure
against the Posgres camp ;)

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services
Treasurer - Firebird Foundation Inc.