# DBI, native extensions, etcetera

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dbi-native-extensions-etcetera/103057>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 1, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dbi-native-extensions-etcetera/103057 "2007-05-01T09:44:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dbi-native-extensions-etcetera/103057/1 "2007-05-01T09:44:36Z")

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I want to do some databasey stuff. DBI/DBD looks to be unmaintained  
(or at least, has a large and apparently untouched bug list). The  
native  
ruby-postgresql driver I found, while it does work, is massively  
underdocumented, or at least, I couldn’t find anything telling me what  
the difference between ‘quote’ and ‘escape’ was, and some web pages  
suggest that the API used is obsolescent anyway.

Assuming that I want to use postgresql with Ruby, what should I use?

Perhaps more importantly, if I wanted to contribute documentation or  
code fixes, is there an interface around that would be interested in  
feedback?

I would, for the record, very much like to get the actual text of error  
messages back, not just an abstraction. The postgresql driver I’m  
using right now (it has a PGconn class, if that’s any use) does this,  
but it looks a little undermantained.

-s