[racket] Racket in the large

> > 6. I think there is one thing missing in Racket, and this was also
> > pointed out during the discussion: database drivers for major DBMSs (I
> > would say at least Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server on the commercial front,
> > and PostgreSQL, SQLite and MySQL on the open source front).
> 
> My database package (ryanc/db) works for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite
> directly and Oracle and DB2 via ODBC. It should work with SQL Server also,
> but I haven't tested that configuration.
> 
> Docs are here:
> http://planet.racket-lang.org/package-source/ryanc/db.plt/1/4/planet-
> docs/db/index.html

Great information, thanks. I take it this package works natively with PostgreSQL, SQLite and MySQL. Is it possible and "cheap" to make it work natively with other RDBMSs, such as Oracle?

>  > In addition to that, I think Racket would be greatly enhanced by a
> > single relational data access layer that would hide the differences
> > between specific RDBMSs and facilitate switching from one to another.
> > (Note: I am not trying to dictate anything about Racket, just voicing
> > my opinion).
> 
> There are many things you might mean by that (ORMs, relational-algebra-to-
> SQL compilers, etc). The concerns that Sigrid raised make me think that hiding
> *all* the differences is a hopeless task, but maybe something with a
> narrower focus could be useful. Are there any existing frameworks that
> accomplish what you have in mind?

You are right, my requirement is ambiguous. This is what I have in mind:

1. A set of abstractions (probably written in Racket) that allow you to interact with any RDBMS in a uniform way: select records, join tables, insert / update / delete data, etc. Hopefully you would have one or more DSLs to specify what you want to do, and not have to use strings (as in JDBC) for your commands. This should apply to all RDBMSs.
2. A generic library (probably written in C / C++) that provides all the low-level trappings for #1.
3. A set of drivers (written in C / C++), one for each RDBMS, that #2 uses when configured to talk to that particular RDBMS.

So I would love to be able to write something like this in a Racket-y style:

(select-from '((tab-A A) (tab-B B))  '(A.col-1 A.col-2 B.col-3) '(some magical way to specify conditions and joins...))

And this would work for, say, Oracle, if somebody takes the time to develop #3 above for the Oracle case. Bonus points if the solution uses prepared statements (for reasons of security and efficiency).

> Ryan

-- 
Gonzalo Diethelm