Re: sqlite3

[Jose E. Marchesi]

> Before this discussion takes off, one should first take into acount if
> it fits adding sqlite to Emacs with the overall guidelines of GNU
> Emacs, the GNU project, and the GNU coding standards.
>
> The sqlite non-license (it says public domain) status might be
> problematic, since to get a proper license would require the FSF to
> buy one explicitly.  Richard or someone would have to check how that
> would work out.
>
>
> The main benefit of dbm is that it is standard on all Unix systems,
> GNU included while sqlite isn't.  There is also GNU GDBM which has
> extra features over standard DBM, like data consitency and what nots
> and is installed as widley as sqlite on GNU/Linux systems.
>
> GNU recutils is not as standard, but it is a GNU project and could be
> extended in maners that are useful for GNU emacs.  The nicest thing
> about the recutils format is that it is plain text, and it is fast.
> The developers maybe can fill in how well it does on bigger datasets;
> adding Jose to CC.

What is the purpose of integrating a database sytem in Emacs?
To store what kind of data?
What amount of data?
Do you need to maintain data integrity?
Do you need foreign keys?
Do you need multi-field keys?

The reason I'm asking is because:

gdbm is a key-value tuples database.
sqlite is a relational database system.
GNU recutils is a sort of an hybrid between key-value and relational.

And so:

gdbm may or may not be what you need in Emacs.
sqlite is not a replacement for gdbm.
recutils is not a replacement for sqlite.

It seems to me that any discussion in which it is raised the alternative
of using so disparaged systems such as gdbm, sqlite and recutils for
some particular purpose, is in serious need of some clarification on why
a database sytem is needed to begin with and the nature of the data to
be stored there.