# \[ann\] dbi 0.4.0

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-dbi-0-4-0/146702>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 24, 2008, 11:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-dbi-0-4-0/146702 "2008-08-24T11:47:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/happolati)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2008, 11:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-dbi-0-4-0/146702/1 "2008-08-24T11:47:25Z")

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DBI 0.4.0 is the next stable release of DBI, a lightweight database  
agnostic interface modeled after Perl’s DBI.

This release brings many things:

- Type conversion is now universally managed amongst DBDs. Please see  
DBI::Type and DBI::TypeUtil and the DBI::StatementHandle#bind\_coltype  
method.
- Rubygems support! All DBDs and DBI will now install and appropriately  
fetch  
prerequisites (when possible) via the ‘gem’ command and other Rubygems  
interfaces.
- Lots of code has been cleaned up and the filesystem has been  
significantly  
reorganized.
- Many bugfixes due to inconsistencies between DBDs.
- DBDs that were deprecated in 0.2.0 have been removed, as have the  
Proxy and  
Trace libraries (they didn’t work anyways.) Proxy and Trace will be  
revisited  
in the future.
- Several calls and classes have been deprecated in favor of native  
ruby replacements.
- Tons of new documentation for both DBI users and DBD developers alike.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/happolati)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-dbi-0-4-0/146702/2 "2008-09-03T18:45:53Z")

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On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 06:43:20PM +0900, Erik H. wrote:

> DBI 0.4.0 is the next stable release of DBI, a lightweight database  
> agnostic interface modeled after Perl’s DBI.

Thanks to you and the other maintainers for working on this, much  
appreciated.  
I love the fact that it’s now a (maintained) set of gems. Whoohoo!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@happolati](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/happolati)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-dbi-0-4-0/146702/3 "2008-09-03T20:53:05Z")

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Jos B. wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 06:43:20PM +0900, Erik H. wrote:
> 
> > DBI 0.4.0 is the next stable release of DBI, a lightweight database  
> > agnostic interface modeled after Perl’s DBI.
> 
> Thanks to you and the other maintainers for working on this, much  
> appreciated.  
> I love the fact that it’s now a (maintained) set of gems. Whoohoo!

Shameless plug in 3…2…1…

Glad to hear it 🙂

DBI is still very far from being production-quality software though (as  
much as it pains me to admit that), and I am always looking for people  
with solid ideas/code/criticism to bring to the table. The software  
(ideally) only gets better when more people are demonstrating what they  
want changed.

Another great way to get involved is to grab an unsupported DBD and  
write one or leapfrog off an old one that’s been removed. Now that  
they’re independently packaged, it’s much easier to do this without any  
external involvement.

So allow me to jump at the opportunity to pimp the lists:  
[http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group\_id=234](http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group_id=234)

If you want to get involved, there’s no boys club here and until the S:N  
gets too low to continue in this manner, I want to encourage anyone to  
contribute. just keep the goals of the project in mind, which are  
demonstrated here: [http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org](http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org) when making suggestions  
(in other words, we’re not writing an ORM or exceptionally heavy  
abstractions anytime soon).

-Erik