From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Thien-Thi Nguyen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Importing tab-delimited text files or connecting to ODBC Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 06:53:39 +0100 Organization: sometimes Message-ID: <7epslli55o.fsf@ada2.unipv.it> References: <7ey80aj1fi.fsf@ada2.unipv.it> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1140280910 9953 80.91.229.2 (18 Feb 2006 16:41:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 16:41:50 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Feb 18 17:41:49 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FAV9W-0004YT-Ra for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:41:48 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FAV99-0005aB-UN for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:41:24 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!colt.net!peernews3.colt.net!news0.de.colt.net!newsfeed.cw.net!cw.net!news-FFM2.ecrc.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news.belwue.de!LF.net!quimby.gnus.org!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 28 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: ada2.unipv.it Original-X-Trace: quimby.gnus.org 1140242019 29078 193.204.44.145 (18 Feb 2006 05:53:39 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@quimby.gnus.org Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 05:53:39 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Qglw0CjHX4zwjjagMUFopeeHNbY= Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:137654 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:33280 Archived-At: Maks Romih writes: > I will take a look, of course, however I'm afraid that I still > won't find what I ask at the moment. Edb seems more a standalone > database but I want to have some tool to connect to or import > from other data sources, especially relational DBMS-es, excel, > MS Access, etc. it is true that EDB is (still) weak in terms of dealing directly w/ external processes; you must read from, and write to, a file. however, this stipulation is not so onerous since emacs allows you to define file handlers (based on stylized filenames) that can mediate between EDB and external processes. to play, look at variable `file-name-handler-alist', and the source code for the handful of builtin handlers listed there. EDB itself messes around a bit w/ this handler alist, but very very simply -- better to study e.g. `tramp-file-name-handler'. probably a neat hack would be to wrap `x-get-selection' (or whatever is equivalent for your platform) for reading and the analog for writing, so that you could select some spreadsheet range, invoke EDB on it, and save it back into the spreadsheet (kind of like emacsclient for spreadsheet ranges). another item for the TODO list, i suppose... thi