xtask

SEH -- A very nice looking personal project/to do list management utility, with Gantt display and notification/reminder features. [L1 ]

The chief drawback it seems to me is the fact that it uses a Sybase database for storage/SQL (via Sybtcl). I'd like to see a more lightweight (and freer) option.

MC, 13 Jan 2005: I downloaded the Xtask tarball, but it doesn't come with any SQL statements to create the Sybase database tables that it uses. (Obviously though a careful study of the source code should make clear what the schema needs to look like.)

As to making it work with other databases my (biased? :-) recommendation would be to either refactor the code to use nstcl directly or write a thin wrapper to act as a facade over nstcl providing a Sybtcl interface (facades upon facades, oh my!). Then theoretically you could add a 1 line [package require] to the start of Xtask.tcl without modifying any of the other code and have it work with SQLite, Postgres, Oracle, Solid, or anything TclODBC can talk to.

Yikes, skimming through this, IMO this illustrates why SQL can be a pretty awkward fit for Tcl scripts. Introducing a pluggable SQL structure will not simplify it, and to me it's like asking for the ability to switch scripting languages later... -jcw

RLH Why not use an embedded solution? Either SQLite or Metakit, both which have great Tcl support?