Dr. D. Andrew Carr @ UNC Charlotte

Discussed in Class
The following links pertain to some of the software that will be discussed in this class.

UPDATE: Visio

Visio Professional 2003 or Visio Professional 2007

Since the text book we selected for the class uses Visio we opted to teach this as a tool.
MicroSoft made the decision to remove the Update and Generate tools from their basic Visio packages which are what is available to you as students. For details you can read the following link.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/HA101487251033.aspx?pid=CH100648911033

RDMS: PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/

Windows: download the binary from postgres.org
Linux: look for a distribution before compiling from source. Postgres supports Fedora and RedHat and provides distributions. SUSE often comes bundled with postgres using the SUSE distribution with SUSE Linux is reccomended rather than installing from source. Debian allows apt-get installation of the proper packages.
MAC OS: you will have to aqcuire the proper package for your version of the OS they exist and I would start by looking at the following. http://www.postgresqlformac.com/

GUI Administration Tool for PostgreSQL: PGAdminIII http://www.pgadmin.org/

Windows: (Don't need to download or install already incluced in the binary package)
Linux: Install the appropriate package from pgadmin.org
MAC: Install the appropriate package from pgadmin.org

Scripting Language: Python http://www.python.org/

Use a version of python 2.5 (Do not use the 3.0!!!!)

Windows: Download the installer
Linux: Often included with the OS. If not present check for rpm or compiled package via flavors distribution update tool before installing from source.
MAC: Download the installer (works for PPC and Intel)

DBC Driver Postgres and Python: psycopg2 http://www.initd.org/tracker/psycopg/wiki/PsycopgTwo

Use a version for python 2.5 and the correct version of Postgres

Windows: Download compiled package from http://www.stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/index.html
Linux: Check for rpm or package. This may need to be compiled from source.
MAC: Try using this package http://py25-psycopg2.darwinports.com/

A good help link for using psycopg2 is: http://www.devx.com/opensource/Article/29071

GUI Building Tool: PyQT4 http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/

PyQT is a easy to learn GUI building tool that interfaces well with most relational database systems. PyQT is a python wrapper that has been placed around Trolltech's QT package. QT is C++ based and is rapidly gaining popularity in software development circles, both academic and industry. I have found lots of help is available in the opensource package of QT via the QTAssitant tool and the examples that are provided.

You may find it worthwhile to look at QT which is available under the opensource license.

http://trolltech.com/products/qt