Jonas Beckman

Hmm… I’m traveling backwards in time here.

I really meant to write something on this day, but never did more than flip the page. Going back now and writing something is weird: it will create the illusion that I really did write something this day - that is, I’m rewriting history.

Several people will know better, since they have already have already wondered about my empty pages. On the other hand, writing is always about creating an illusion - even when everything is literally true.

Hal links to Evolution of A Jungian Shaman. Maybe Aila should read this.

Postponed meetings today… but I didn’t care. My little Python library to run SQL Server’s XML storage is growing.

An hour ago I hacked up another small Python class: it takes XML data + a mapping Schema, creates tables and bulk inserts XML into SQL Server. It’s fast and very simple - and the necessary SQL XML Schema annotations can be ignored by any other applications.
So far I have written mapping schemas by hand - but there is a GUI called SQL Server XML View Mapper that might be useful. I’m wondering why it uses Semantic Modeling Format instead of simple SQL scripts, however. The docs say this is an unpublished format used by several MS products and then starts talking about BizTalk… but maybe I’m just paranoid.

Is SQL Server2000 be a good database for XML? Maybe… I don’t know yet. But it was relatively easy to set up a test environment where I successfully ran the current sample code from MSDN, XML Magazine etc. And I did hack up a Python interface for the new xml bulk-load that felt much better than the VB samples - that part was fun.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss strategy with the customer - at least I can now say that SQL Server might be a workable storage solution.

BTW - Aila has been extremely patient, so far. I have been lying around at her place hacking on my Thinkpad for many hours now. Guess it’s time to go for a walk now.

It has been almost impossible to get to this page for several days - looks like the server spring cleaning over at ETP is done.

Martin: There’s a difference between choosing not to talk and not being able to. Amen.

I just installed Komodo 1.0. Maybe I’ll change my mind later… but this could be the Python IDE I have been looking for. A little slow, but very usable. I took my latest Python project for a ride, added some cosmetic stuff I had wanted to anyway - everything worked fine.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with Pythonwin - it’s a very nice and unintrusive editor. But my Python projects are getting larger. And environments like Smalltalk and Delphi did spoil me forever: give me a superb interpreted language with plenty of introspective power, and I expect a superb working environment too. Anything less feels… unnatural.

Useful XML-RPC hacks. Lots of fun. Via Scripting News

Pygame 1.0 has been released!