[R-sig-DB] Re: Rdbi package [forwarded msg]

[David James]

Timothy H. Keitt wrote:
> David James wrote:
> 
> > Timothy H. Keitt wrote:
> > 
> >>I haven't had time to fix up the data conversion stuff. I have some old 
> >>routines from RPgSQL in Rdbi.PgSQL. The choice is to leave the 
> >>conversion behavior undefined and let each specific implementation 
> >>handle conversion however they see fit, or to define a set of generic 
> >>functions to be subclassed. The latter is preferable, but probably 
> >>difficult to get right given the heterogeneity among potential data 
> >>sources. (Or more accurately, I mean that its difficult to do cleanly; 
> >>if you cover all the marginal cases, it will get unwieldy.)
> >>
> > 
> > No need to do this, for the time being.  If I'm not mistaken, we're 
> > taking the Rdbi package to be a starting point for a common interface, 
> > so by necessity it will have to evolve as we gain experience with it
> > and its various driver implementations.  
> 
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> > 
> > I still think that we need a document (in English, that is) to describe 
> > the interface, its classes and generic functions, perhaps the various data 
> > conversion mechanisms, ways to query the metadata, and so forth
> > e.g., what to do with SQL keywords in R/S objects that we export to DBMS.
> > Also, it is in this kind of document were we could identify core and optional
> > features.  (Both the python and perl interfaces have such a 
> > specification document.)
> 
> 
> Agreed, also, but its not likely I will be able to do this anytime soon.


No problem, I'll come up with a first draft by the end of this week.

> 
> T.
> 
> > 
> > 
> >>Tim
> >>
> >>David James wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Kurt Hornik wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>>>>>>M Edward Borasky writes:
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>Sounds good to me. At some point in the near future I may get a chance
> >>>>>to test it on a Windows box with MS Access; I've been using RODBC for
> >>>>>that.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>Ok.  Will wait till tomorrow morning to allow for further reactions.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>Not that I anticipate any major issues, but could we wait until the end
> >>>of this week?  I'd like to check a couple of things (one that Torsten
> >>>brought to my attention last week and has to do with data conversions,
> >>>and portability to Splus being the other).
> >>>
> >>
> >>I'm not running Splus, so I haven't tried to make it compatible. It 
> >>would seem to be a good thing to do, although I admit, I've been pretty 
> >>unhappy with Mathsoft in the past because of their callous attitude 
> >>towards UNIX, which (as far as I know) is the environment where S 
> >>originated.
> >>
> > 
> > I understand, and I wouldn't expect people to be doing both R and 
> > S implementations.  All I'm suggesting is to see if we could follow 
> > some simple guidelines to make it easier for other people to port 
> > from one system to the other.  My guess is that it'll be users and/or
> > some of us --not Insightful-- doing the porting.
> > 
> > 
> >>
> >>>Thanks,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>Best,
> >>>>-k
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>>>-----Original Message-----
> >>>>>>From: r-sig-db-admin using stat.math.ethz.ch
> >>>>>>[mailto:r-sig-db-admin using stat.math.ethz.ch]On Behalf Of Kurt Hornik
> >>>>>>Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 2:58 AM
> >>>>>>To: Kurt.Hornik using ci.tuwien.ac.at
> >>>>>>Cc: David James; R-SIG-DB using stat.math.ethz.ch; Timothy H. Keitt; Saikat
> >>>>>>DebRoy; Torsten Hothorn
> >>>>>>Subject: [R-sig-DB] Re: Rdbi package [forwarded msg]
> >>>>>>I have not seen any followup on this for almost a month.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Hence, I assume that everyone is happy with the new design, and suggest
> >>>>>>to move Tim's package from contrib/Devel to contrib.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>-k
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>
> >>-- 
> >>Timothy H. Keitt
> >>Department of Ecology and Evolution
> >>State University of New York at Stony Brook
> >>Stony Brook, New York 11794 USA
> >>Phone: 631-632-1101, FAX: 631-632-7626
> >>http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/keitt/
> >>
> >>
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Timothy H. Keitt
> Department of Ecology and Evolution
> State University of New York at Stony Brook
> Stony Brook, New York 11794 USA
> Phone: 631-632-1101, FAX: 631-632-7626
> http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/keitt/
> 

-- 
David A. James
Statistics Research, Room 2C-253            Phone:  (908) 582-3082       
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies              Fax:    (908) 582-3340
Murray Hill, NJ 09794-0636