powershell vs perl

dr_te_z · #1 (**permalink**) 10-03-11, 06:17

Some things cannot be avoided. I am getting involved in a conversion from DB2 to ms-sql

In the current situation I've got ksh-scripts which produce SQL and this SQL is fed into db2batch. All this on aix.
I am planning to convert my ksh-scripts into perl and use standard ODBC to communicate with DB2. The scripts will run on windows. Code SQL as agile as possible so in the next phase the ODBC can point to ..... the other database... <sigh> and the conversion is a fact.

But my hemlock is not empty yet. They would rather see a powershell solution. So I need arguments why perl is much betten than powershell. I do not know powershell and I was not planning to educate myself...
Is that wise or are powershell skills usefull for a DB2/DBA?
Please advise.

O and while we're at it: which is better on windows: activeState or strawberry perl?

Peter.Vanroose · #2 (**permalink**) 10-04-11, 17:42

Personally I'm happily using ActiveState on MS-Windows, but other distributions are equally well, certainly if you don't heavily rely on Perl modules (apart from the DBI).

Cannot say anything about Powershell, but imho Perl is certainly a good choice, especially in terms of stability. I know large companies which adopted perl as their standard (unix and Windows) scripting tool. And the DBI is fairly stable, and supported by IBM for DB2. For MS SQL-Server you'll have to use the ODBC driver of DBI.

dr_te_z · #3 (**permalink**) 10-05-11, 06:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter.Vanroose

and supported by IBM for DB2.

and maintained?? the IBM documentation is not valid anymore. I do not have in depth knowledge of perl so it is hard for me to analyse and solve the problems:

on windows . A clean install of express-C, active state perl and then the DB2 DBD does not work as described. The IBM documentation is too old (looks sloppy to me).

on linux I had it working, but an upgrade of perl (arch linux) broke my db2 connection and I am not able to fix that. Guess I'll have to use debian-stable for such a configuration.