[Scottish] Re: Using PHP to parse simple 'text database'

[Elwell, AD (Andrew)]

> (For me, I'm sure(?) MySQL _would_ be more hassle, but I'd be prepared
> to be swayed on this ;-)

yeah - any SQL database system *will* have a steep learning curve.
I guess the advantage is that its one of those "transferable skills"


> I only have the capability for 5 MySQL databases with my host. 

thats quite alot = remember that each database can hold several tables

> Since I'd have to
> regularly upload changes to the remote server over a humble dialup
> modem, I can see this not being a good solution, which is why I'm
> thinking of lots of small data files for different parts of my website.


you can either do a local dump > upload > restore on remote
or do a series of UPDATE table WHERE some change...

perhaps via a CGI / PHP thingy(tm)

If Perl is still the best (or most mature, or easiest(!)) tool for the
job, I'd happily do it that away. Does anybody have any
pointers/tutorials 
on database-handling in Perl?

The defacto standard is DBI - it provides a transparent layer under which
you can have several interfaces say to MySQL / DB2 / Oracl£.

Tutorials... um webmonkey is pretty good


Andrew