In summary:
So it was another entertaining and
instructive semester with the big hairy guy up in the Science building.
In general, most of what I learned this semester came from reading the two
books MySQL and mSQL and Programming the Perl DBI, both by
O'Reilly. Web development was made possible by readings from Webmaster
in a Nutshell, and as always, this entire project was Powered by Perl.
In the end, I learned just what the difficulties and limitations of
working with different kinds of databases are, how incompatible the lot of
it all is, and why Jim likes the idea of neat little computer people in
his glasses. Ultimately, this has been another useful learning
experience, which more than anything else, has helped to chink in those
holes in my programming knowledge that were getting a little drafty
(namely in this instance, my total lack of knowledge concerning the
workings of modern databases, the Server Query Language, or how to tie it
all together in an interesting way to a form that any average user (read -
idiot) can use. Yay, DBI!) The only thing I can think of at this point
is how much this is going to help me with next semester's Geoinformatics
project (also involving the use of databases) and hopefully in getting a
good job in the long run. So thanks again, Jim, and I'll see you when I
get back in January!