On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 17:51, Michael Hipp <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm embarking on a sizable project and need to make some decisions early on. > Question... > > Is there any downside to using Elixir vs. straight SQLAlchemy? > > I sure look like the look of Elixir's model definitions vs. having to write > everything twice in SA. > > Just hoped someone might be brutally honest if there's something I might > regret if I use Elixir. Well, the biggest technical downside for the latest stable release (0.7.1) is the fact that not all types of interaction are allowed between Elixir and pure SA, specifically, you can't have a ManyToMany relationship pointing to a pure SA class. That particular limitation will be lifted in 0.8 (I got experimental code for it in my copy) and if anybody needs it badly, I might even release 0.8 early (and postpone other improvements slated for 0.8). Except from that, there are very few *technical* limitations. You might want to have a look at the bug tracker to get an idea of them. However, the argument I most often hear against Elixir is that it makes debugging in case there is a problem somewhat harder, because you have to know where the problem came from, and people do not always find obvious what Elixir generated for you. The thing is the *default* rules (many things are configurable) for that are pretty simple: ManyToOne = add a Column in table with a foreign key to the remote table's primary key + a relation in the mapper ManyToMany = create an intermediary table (2 columns with foreign keys to each related table) + a relation in the mapper OneToMany & OneToOne = add a relation to the mapper All in all, the deciding factor is usually: do you appreciate enough having some columns and some tables (Intermediary tables for ManyToMany) being (optionally) generated for you, that you are willing to pay a potentially longer debugging time for it? If not, then do not use Elixir, and use "declarative" (SQLAlchemy's builtin extension) instead. Hope it helps, -- Gaëtan de Menten -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SQLElixir" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sqlelixir?hl=en.
