Chapter 19. Serving and Connecting to Databases

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Installing and Configuring MySQL

• Creating and Working with a MySQL Database

• Accessing Database Information Using Perl

• Accessing Database Information Using ODBC

Thanks to open source projects, Tiger users can enjoy first-class database packages such as MySQL that, only a few years ago we would have never dreamed of running on the Mac OS. Instead of forking over several hundred (or thousand) dollars for a commercial database system, you can take 20 minutes to download and install MySQL and then have a full-featured database at your fingertips.

This chapter covers MySQL, Perl, and iODBC, and discusses how they can be combined to create a powerful database development environment. Without spending a dime, you can host databases capable of handling hundreds of queries a second.