[PHP-DEV] Re: Couldn't find your reference From: Eli Marmor (marmor <email protected>)
Date: 11/18/99

Hello,

I was asked by some people from the list about the Slashdot's
references regarding to the lack of database abstraction in PHP. At
least the e-mail address of one of them was incorrect, so I thought
that this forum will be good too. BTW: Next time before sending
questions to me, please check your e-mail address.

> I looked far and wide on the Slashdot website, but was not able to
> find any reference to Perl+DBI. Was it supposed to be in the inverview
> with the PHP developers (which I also read through)?

There were many references about the lack of database abstraction in
PHP, but since you asked only about the comparison with DBI, it will
be shorter and easier for me to give three references. To save your
time, I'll quote some words for each reference:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DBI is database interface independent
PHP not:

        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99/11/15/1356226&cid=37

Bingo. This (database interface dependency) IMO is the biggest problem
that needs to be solved with PHP. It supports a wide variety of
databases with APIs that are very similar in function, but they're all
different. We do a lot of work with MySQL and Oracle around here, and
with Perl/DBI you can often go from one to the other with no changes at
all (except the connection string). It couldn't possibly be easier.

Something like DBI could probably be done in PHP. It would be an
enormous advantage:

        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99/11/15/1356226&cid=50

There are two things that I really miss in php, as you pointed out, DBI
rocks:

        http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99/11/15/1356226&cid=64

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to my words:

Though I don't think that opinions from Slashdot should dictate the
development decisions of PHP, they second the feeling I already got
from customers. It seems that the most annoying thing for users of
PHP (not students or freaks who use it at home and who didn't ever
see a real commercial database, but corporate users) is the lack of
such an interface. 

-- 
Eli Marmor

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