It's awesome! All those features that I've been gradually adding to sqlpython - at the cost of slow execution, and with my personal late-night bad quality control - most of them have been in mysql for years. Flexible output formats, easy interaction with the OS environment, and so forth. A fat toolbox of goodies.
So, how about this, Oracle? Oracle SQL*Plus has been neglected and underpowered for ages. It can't hold a candle to the mysql client for features. Why not assign a few programmers to extend the mysql client so that it works with Oracle as well as MySQL? Why should the world have to deal with a different client program for every database back-end? I can really imagine mysql evolving into the One True SQL Client.
Finally, I have to praise the MySQL Cookbook from O'Reilly. For somebody moving to MySQL from another database, it's the only way to fly. Almost all MySQL books I've seen assume that it's your first database, and spend 90% of the text explaining SQL fundamentals. Based on my happy experience with the Python Cookbook, I thought the MySQL Cookbook would do better, and I was right. It cuts straight to the stuff that isn't obvious but is very, very useful.
(Hi. Yes, I've been quiet. Yes, I love the new job. Yes, it's a lot of work, particularly during this learning-the-ropes phase.)
