My employer is the type that says, "Show me a working prototype and then we'll refine it." It's quite aggravating when the functionality isn't fully nailed down, so I am definately going to stick with DB_File.

The suggestion for normalizing the database was EXACTLY what I needed. (thanks joealba!). I've done that and it has drastically improved the database. I have some books on MySQL coming soon, and I intend to tackle learning it quite soon. Who knows... perhaps I'll be rewriting the script 6 months later. Question though: how stable is MySQL in comparison to say, a DBM or a flat file for small (under 5000 entries) databases? Is it realistic to think that I could set up a system that allows them to add, edit, and remove records with a web interface and not have to be there to maintain it? I have yet to work with it very much, so it will be a challenge :-)

In reply to Re: Stick w/the DBMs by Stamp_Guy
in thread Question about properly laying out a database by Stamp_Guy

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.