On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:49:36 -0500, Paul Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> Hi, >> My company is involved in the development of many data marts and >> data-warehouses, and I currently looking into migrating our old set of >> tools (written in Korn) to a new, more dynamic and robust one. ... > However, I would have to assume that if homebrew shell scripts have been > doing the work adequately, then the marts and warehouses are not very > large and the datasets are primarily text rather than binary. > > If this is the case and you are only seeking incremental improvement, > then Python would be a very good choice. Perl would also do the job. > Just about any language would work. Yes, there are many reasons to > choose Python. However, you would have to build any scalability and > metadata management. > > If you seek a radical improvement, it is available, but I do not know of > any free tools that will do it. A question like this will probably not > be answered in a newsgroup post or even the exchange of a few emails. > > Choosing an effective tool for the organization is not a trivial > process. It requires knowledge of both the tools and the organization's > methodologies and processes. If you do not have staff who can do this, > most companies find it is much cheaper and faster to pay someone who > does know (a consultant) to assist them in assessing their requirements, > tool selection, and forming an implementation plan.
But remember: sometimes, a bunch of shell scripts or a Python script is the right tool for the problem. Sometimes, I think a bunch of shell scripts is the right tool for a lot of the problems people throw XMLthis, XMLthat, .NET, SQL servers, consultants and money at. There is no real reason (with the little information we have[1]) to believe that the original poster is making his employer a disservice by looking at doing things himself, in plain old Python, instread of letting someome tear down and rebuild whatever workflow/methodology/process stuff they have right now. /Jorgen [1] Unless "ETL" and "data mart" carry some deep meaning which I've missed, that is. -- // Jorgen Grahn <jgrahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu \X/ algonet.se> R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list