My New Job at Oracle: Working on MySQL Connector/Python

After more than 6 years doing MySQL Support for MySQL AB, Sun Microsystems, and Oracle, it’s time for a change. Time to get back to development!

As of November 2011 I’ll be working full-time on MySQL Connector/Python and other goodies within the MySQL development team at Oracle. Before, this was more or less a pet project done after working hours. However, with the birth of our son Tomas more than a year ago, I’ve been slacking and family got priority.

The idea is to make MySQL Connector/Python the best choice for connecting to MySQL from within your Python code. We still got a long road ahead of us, but I’m confident that we are on the right track.

Comments

Ulf Wendel

Fri Oct 28 2011, 11:37

Welcome, Geert! Did I miss your internal mail on this…?

David Shrewsbury

Fri Oct 28 2011, 12:29

Good news. I use Python against a MySQL db everyday now in my current job and I’m really unimpressed with MySQLdb, although it gets the job done. Glad to see some full-time work behind this project.

Chris Calender

Fri Oct 28 2011, 15:00

Congratulations on your new role! Wish you the best of luck :)

Catherine Devlin

Fri Oct 28 2011, 15:32

Hooray for Oracle and for you! MySQLdb’s outdatedness has been a real pain point.

Monty Taylor

Fri Oct 28 2011, 15:59

Awesome. I was just recommending Connector/Python to folks in OpenStack as an option for DB connections due to issues using MySQLdb with eventlet. It’s great to know that actual support is going to happen for it. (btw - I’m pretty sure it works with SqlAlchemy already, but if you wanted to add SqlAlchemy to the set of things you test, I would not be opposed)

Steve Holden

Fri Oct 28 2011, 16:34

Great, I used Connector for my Python classes at O’Reilly Scholl of Technology. It will be good to see improvements (though for our purposes the code already appears quite solid).

Geert Vanderkelen

Fri Oct 28 2011, 18:15

@Monty Taylor It’s already part of SQLAlchemy, but I need to make sure Connector/Python stays compatible.

Geert Vanderkelen

Fri Oct 28 2011, 18:17

@David Shrewsbury And we are trying to keep compatible with MySQLdb.

Geert Vanderkelen

Fri Oct 28 2011, 18:17

@Catherine Devlin That’s why I started Connector/Python 4 years ago on my Mac :)

Geert Vanderkelen

Fri Oct 28 2011, 18:19

@Steve Holden Indeed, for most folks it’s already working well. We need to polish the code and make Connector/Python perform as good as possible in pure Python.

Dean Ellis

Fri Oct 28 2011, 20:19

Awesome (ish). I use your connector every single day, great to see you able to focus on it!

Max Mether

Fri Oct 28 2011, 20:23

Congrats Geert! Will there be an NDB/Python API coming out as well?

Tony Pines

Fri Nov 11 2011, 05:49

Geert, If you’re at Oracle now working on MySQL and Python, does this mean that Oracle will be supplying some official Python/MySQL support for licensed Standard and Enterprise users?