# Mac Database Technology And Programming



## ohmelas (Apr 26, 2003)

This is a high level question dealing not with the technologies available to a programmer (I have them all: RealBasic, Cocoa, Web Objects and Metroworks).

I'm new to programming on a Mac. Recently lost my virginity on programming on a Mac this week-end. Hello World, here I am.   

Okay so here I go:

Where can I find real powerful Database resources for Mac? I've decided that I want to be a god in database programming on the Mac. 

It seems to be a market that no one is in? 

Enough Said, Mac OSX Poweruser Programmers. Lay it on me. Where are these mysterious resources and how about a veritble host of how-to's and why-nots. I need those mostly to convert myself to the lingo quickly. 

If they don't exist I suppose I'll have to resort to learning it the hard way and then make something myself--any Macromedia Director or something? 

Let's talk and write a business plan and make this marketable.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help here.

P.S. I'm partial allready to MySQL (It's portable on any platform) but tell me more of 4D and the others.


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## wyvern (Apr 26, 2003)

I'm not a DB programmer but I'd stick with MySQL. If large organizations and small sites alike are fond of PostgreSQL and MySQL, why not you?  Platform specific is definitely a bad thing with databases.


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## ohmelas (Apr 27, 2003)

What other database products are out there for the Mac. How about a list and their web sights?


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## wyvern (Apr 27, 2003)

How about Google?


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## rhg (Apr 28, 2003)

OS X has the iODBC driver manager integrated. This allows to use any database which provides an ODBC driver. However, it currently lacks unicode support so it cannot be used in all environments. I heard some time ago that Apple is working on it.


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## ohmelas (Apr 28, 2003)

I found a great starting point:

http://www.macreviewzone.com/html/reviews/magazine/software/database_spreadsheet.php


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## callieX (Apr 29, 2003)

You can get the devel version of oracle 9i for oSX from oracle's website.

calliex


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## ohmelas (Apr 29, 2003)

Are there any preferences out there? I guess that's another starting point. I know that in my Information Technology Circ. at school they are heavily biased towards Microsoft products. Although, some of their prodcuts are great and functional I don't believe they represent a majority of business solutions. Oracle does come to mind in all of these categories. Have most Database Applications gone to the Web Based Client Server Solutions or are there others still? Please advise.


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## binaryDigit (Apr 29, 2003)

Well generically it would be a very good idea to learn SQL and some of the broader concepts of enterprise level database workings (e.g. transaction management, online backups, etc).  This can be done with any SQL server out there.  Then you can see where the winds take you.

As for whether most db apps are web based client server, yes and no.  There is still a ton of each.  Remember, http/html based apps are fine for a given subset of apps, but there is a HUGE number of apps that don't like the limits of that model.  Most of these are internal corp apps and that is why you don't really hear about them unless you are in the industry.

You can choose whichever server is easiest to use (not as in ease of use, but one that you can get your hands on and mess around with easily).  Unless you have a leaning one way or the other, or you know of some specific stuff that uses one or the other (I'm talking M$ vs Oracle here), then that decision is not that important.  Things like MySQL are ok, but they lack many features of the big boys (transaction processing being one of the biggies, though I hear that's either here or coming soon).  If you want to do this for real, I would suggest sticking with the big guns.  PostgresSQL is interesting here in that it is very feature rich, though not widely used.  That may be a good starting point to tinker with.


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## jsn (Apr 30, 2003)

try oracle

http://technet.oracle.com/software/products/jdev/content.html

jsn


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