Re: Trying to learn the PL/pgsql procedural language - Mailing list pgsql-novice
From | Gavin Flower |
---|---|
Subject | Re: Trying to learn the PL/pgsql procedural language |
Date | |
Msg-id | 544DE615.5000803@archidevsys.co.nz Whole thread Raw |
In response to | Re: Trying to learn the PL/pgsql procedural language ("John R. Sowden" <jsowden@americansentry.net>) |
List | pgsql-novice |
On 27/10/14 18:15, John R. Sowden wrote: > On 10/26/2014 08:53 PM, David G Johnston wrote: >> John R. Sowden wrote >>> I have been a foxpro/dos programmer for my small business for about 35 >>> years. I use linux for all but database stuff. For db I use >>> foxpro/dosemu. It looks like pg is my best bet for linux/sql. After >>> reading an o'reilly book on pg (_practical postgresql_), not one word >>> was mentioned in the procedural language chapter about displaying text. >>> I write complete applications (in foxpro), not just queries and >>> forms. >>> >>> What am I missing here? I am not interested in trying to learn C, C++, >>> Java, or Perl in order to read sql databases. >> >> Unlike FoxPro, PostgreSQL does not have any kind of user interface >> development layer built in. PL/pgsql is intended to allow you to >> process >> data using procedural logic instead of just a sequence of SQL set-based >> statements. There is no way to write an entire user application >> purely with >> PL/pgsql - the functions you write end up performing specific data >> manipulation tasks that are glued together by the caller using a more >> full >> featured programming language. >> >> The book you chose to read is 12 YEARS old; you will find much is not >> covered there (or is outright wrong) simply because things have changed >> considerably in that time period. >> >> You will have to choose a language to develop your application in and >> then >> use an appropriate database driver for that language to connect to your >> PostgreSQL instance. It is quite probable you could even continue using >> Foxpro and simply connect to PostgreSQL via ODBC. >> >> I would suggest you first read large portions of the current >> documentation - >> you will find that few introductory books on PostgreSQL exist because >> the >> documentation itself is well written. That is not to say that newer >> books >> targeting newcomers do not exist... >> >> David J. >> >> >> >> >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Trying-to-learn-the-PL-pgsql-procedural-language-tp5824353p5824361.html >> Sent from the PostgreSQL - novice mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >> >> > Thank you both for your response. This does not sound good. It looks > like I am going to have to find a linux language that I can embed sql > commands to talk to pg. > > John > > > > > I am now mainly a Java developer, but I started with FORTRAN & COBOL (I'm ancient), with a sideline of teaching C to experienced programmers. I suggest that Python or Java are probably the best languages for you, I think. Java is more cumbersome to learn than Python, but scales well to deal with complicated systems and enterprise heavy loads. I looked at Python, and liked what I saw, but it was not a good fit for me. C++ is quite heavily used, and is likely to keep growing, but is probably harder to gain competence in than Java. Cheers, Gavin Cheers, Gavin
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