Computer science is a rapid, chaotic environment. Making sense of the jobs we have to perform and the tools that are appropriate for a given task becomes a science unto itself.
Fortunately there exist some shining tools which rise above the rest and are the first tool you should pick given a matching task.
Use sqlite3:
Sqlite is embedded in your application and runs as part of your process. Data is stored in a single file and sqlite can handle multiple processes reading and writing to the same database file at the same time.
Use unqlite:
Unqlite is embedded in your application and runs as part of your process. Data is stored in a single file and unqlite can handle multiple processes reading and writing data to the same database file at the same time.
Use postgres:
Postgres runs as a system service and provides a huge number of ways to talk to the database, but for data with a schema you will be using prepared SQL statements and will most likely connect over tcp to port 5432.
Use postgres:
Postgres has full support for unstructured data, so as long as your application can handle lists/maps/graph type data you can use a postgres connection to read and write those kinds of data.
Use BARE:
BARE is very similar to how any C compiler will lay out data in memory, but the utility here is that BARE is a standard so you can send data represented in a C program to a Python program so long as both programs use the same BARE schema source files.
Use CBOR:
CBOR is essentially a standard format for lists, maps, and primitives like strings, integers, and floating-point numbers.
Use TOML:
Use TOML:
Use the godot engine:
The godot engine contains all the features you’d need for 3d/physics/custom graphics while still compiling to an embeddable game engine which lets you ship a single .exe file to customers.
Use a webview:
Assuming your software will be used on more than one OS and that the UI will be modified, paying the cost of a web view will give you native-enough graphics without a large infrastructure cost. Usually you will link against the system web view which means not having to pay the cost of embedding a web engine in your application, as well as faster startup times.
use Microsoft’s RDP:
RDP includes side channels for sending just an application window, but this is highly proprietary. Still the protocol quality is so good it is worth mentioning here.
X11 should also be mentioned here because it is the best choice for environments where applications being sent are mostly text and buttons. X11 is more flexible than RDP to deploy and it has a simpler authentication system, but it performs poorly with large images or animated pixels.
The jury is still out, there are many video encoding and playback systems. None stand out enough to warrant inclusion here, that decision should be made based on what systems are being targeted and how the video will be used.
Use rsync:
Rsync is a time-tested file delta transmission tool. For backup purposes use the --link-dest=/backup-N-1/ flag to create hard links for files which do not need to be transferred because they have not changed from backup N-1 to N.
A related (but less performant) tool is Rclone which may be used to standardize cloud storage pools.
Don’t do this. If your backups can be called “images” you need to re-evaluate how your infrastructure is assembled, because it sounds like the procedure is:
stick an install CD in, click next next next, then image the thing so if it breaks we can go back
Which stopped being an effective tactic when good operating systems (linux, 1991 or freebsd, 1993) and filesystems (xfs, 1994) were created, and it becomes an even less effective tactic when one realises containers (bsd jails, 2000 or cgroups, 2006) exist.
Please use one or a combination of those 3 tools because all of them allow you to backup the important pieces of a system and replace the non-important pieces of a system when the non-important pieces become non-functional.
The jury is still out, no systems standardize data formats and return values well enough to be included here.
use ssh:
SSH has proven to be a flexible and robust tool for authenticating users and presenting them with a shell, x11 forwarding, and arbitrary port forwarding. A server owner may specify user control limits, run custom code when users connect, and SSH can use the PAM system to authenticate against kerberos/ldap/OTP 2 factor systems.
SSH is also the backbone of most rsync and git systems, and windows 10 has started shipping with a client installed (\~2018?).
The jury is still out, no systems standardize geospatial visuals and processing well enough to be included here.