Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 11:23:00 -0400 From: Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers2.e313df@mired.org> To: Ivan Voras <ivoras@fer.hr> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: SQL in the base system (Was: New FreeBSD package system (a.k.a. Daemon Package System (dps))) Message-ID: <17988.35412.231093.411177@bhuda.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <f219f6$3ls$1@sea.gmane.org> References: <200705102105.27271.blackdragon@highveldmail.co.za> <f20c8u$htp$1@sea.gmane.org> <4643C7DB.6000408@elischer.org> <f219f6$3ls$1@sea.gmane.org>
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> Perhaps this is a good time I should mention that I think sqlite would > also be good for the password and login databases? :) Someone has already pointed out the horror that is the Windows registry. IIUC, even MS has figured out this is a bad idea, and gotten away from it with Vista. But it's been tried on Unix systems before as well. People who've dealt with AIX tend to feel the same way about it's config system as they do about the Windows Registry. Having a magic tool to edit these files is a pain - it means you now have two sets of things to learn: the magic tool, and the specific details of the file you're dealing with. On a Unix system, knowing how to tweak text files is pretty much a given. So all you need is the details for that file. Using a binary format brings it's own problems. How hard is it to fix a corrupt database? How hard is it to figure out that the database is so corrupt you aren't going to get anything out of it, so you might as well give up? How robust is it - can a corrupt block fry the entire database? How about portability - can I move the file to a completely different architecture and still get the data from it? If any of these are noticably worse than they are for text files, changing is probably not a good idea. Someone else mentioned XML. Well, it's easy to parse - assuming you read that as "someone else wrote the parser for us". That's true for lots of things. I also question the sanity of using it. But I wind up doing a lot of it, because my clients like the buzzword compliance. I regularly beat on them to take advantage of what XML can do that other formats can't. Meaning I make them install validation software, and pay me to write schemas for them, and get them to add hooks to the repository so you can't check in xml files that don't validate. But if you're not going to do that kind of thing, the major feature XML brings is the buzzword compliance. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.
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