[clug] Open Source Project Management

[Robert Thorsby]

On 07/08/09 12:40:24, Ian McLeod wrote:
> What I want is just something basic at home
> - you buy some furniture or a TV or even a
> hard drive - you use invisible ink or the
> serial number or a pack of barcode numbers or
> whatever, scan it in, and a Python script or
> similar allows you to enter all the details
> and it gets filed away and backed up offsite
> to a Gmail Drive or whatever you want.

G'day Ian,

What you have described is *very* elementary and just about anything in 
the way of a real application is overkill.

Since you mentioned earlier that you were learning bash scripting, why 
not use a shell script (using one of the dialogs -- Xdialog for 
preference -- or, even better, kaptain, for your data input) to create 
a flatfile. If you enclose all fields in quotes (even null entries) you 
can use awk to parse and interrogate all you like.

I dare say it can even be done in python. :-)

A csv flatfile has no overhead or dependencies, and is almost 
indestructible. Why bother with anything more complicated.

Cheers,
Robert Thorsby
Q: What's tiny and yellow and very, very, dangerous?
A: A canary with the superuser password.