While reading about how my favorite programing language (Python) was used to develop the first ever image of a black hole, I felt inspired to use the language to do some gravitational physics of my own. Mind you, I am not a physicist, nor do I have an extensive mathematical background, so I certainly was not using Python to do anything that was terribly complicated. Instead, I was using it to do more simple, but still productive (not to mention fun) calculations. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

I recently made a breakthrough by finally getting a handle on containerizing databases with Docker. If you don’t already know, Docker is software that allows you to run software in isolated, virutal environments that contain all the necessary dependencies that said software needs to run. Therefore, Docker can considerably simplify both setting up development environments, and deploying software to production.

I recently started exploring how to store JSON data in a traditional relational database management system (RDBMS), rather than a dedicated form of JSON/document storage, like MongoDB. While I could write a lot more about the problems with MongoDB, that’s not what I want to do here. Instead, I want to focus primarily on how to store and query JSON in PostgreSQL. However, I should note that PostgreSQL is not the only RDBMS that supports JSON storage. I know that MariaDB also does, as of v10.2, and possibly other RDBMS as well. However, since I have been mostly using and enjoying Postgres for awhile now, I decided to focus on that, specifically.

After extensive wrangling and experimentation, I finally have managed to successfully invoke external commands in C# programs, which I hope will make me a considerably more productive C# programmer. So without further ado, let’s dive into the nitty gritty details.