Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to Article on ACS x Zope

Collapse
Posted by Chris McDonough on
"""
Do the drivers really need to change that much every time oracle or sybase releases a new version? I wouldn't think so.
      Besides, if you do have prolems with the driver, do you really want to be dealing with a third-party closed source solution?
"""

When they don't work with the new version, yes (eg. Oracle 8 --> Oracle 8i).

As far as dealing with a third-party closed-source solution, it's either that or continue to write and maintain lots of them ourselves.  As these sorts of things are driven by consulting engagements, it's only once in a while that we write a new one.  Maintaining existing ones takes time that we don't make any money from.  And as much as we champion open source, we are in business to make money.

As far as depending on open source goes, people from the community don't seem to be flocking to Zope to write quality third-party database adapters (although many folks have already ala MySQL and Postgres, there are some serious holes like DB/2 and Informix).  And when folks like Richard Moon ask me when an ODBC adapter for Linux would be available, if we were using Openlink, I could say "right now" and point him to the Openlink adapter instead of saying "as soon as you write one".