Re: sqlite3

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Qiantan Hong <qhong@mit.edu>
> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2021 05:41:17 +0000
> Cc: Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>, Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>,
>  cesar mena <cesar.mena@gmail.com>, "emacs-devel@gnu.org" 
> <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> 
> I’m against using sqlite3, or maybe in general any database.

Why would you be against adding to Emacs infrastructure that might be
useful for some applications?

We didn't yet decide what would be the policy and guidelines for using
this in Emacs, but there should be no doubt that when we do make those
decisions, we will take into considerations all the factors that you
mentioned, and more.  Because Lars, myself, and all the others here
are quite aware of the needs and the advantages/disadvantages, and we
use and develop Emacs long enough to understand what is and what isn't
Emacs'y.  So the decisions, when they are made, will not be silly or
haphazard.  Rest assured that where using simple text files is
adequate, no one in their right mind will advocate using a DB.

I see no reason to be "against sqlite3".  Many popular software
packages out there have similar capabilities, so why shouldn't Emacs
offer them as well?  Just because it can be abused?  If that's the
reason, we'd need to "be against" almost every advanced Emacs feature,
and I personally would go over the display engine and butcher it to
remove every single advanced feature that people are known to abuse.
Would that make sense?  I hope not.

So please, can you drop this "against sqlite3" attitude, and let Lars
finish the job he started?  Adding capabilities to Emacs, and in
particular providing us with interfaces to modern technologies, is
supposed to be a Good Thing, something that advances Emacs and makes
it a better, more capable platform for developing useful applications.
It's our way to survive in the long run.  Let's not shoot ourselves in
the foot due to myopic perspectives.

TIA