Re: sqlite3

[Qiantan Hong <qhong@mit.edu>]

> On Dec 14, 2021, at 10:12 AM, Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> * 2021-12-14 17:52:31+0100, Tomas Hlavaty wrote:
> 
>> So it turned out that sqlite is actually slower but Emacs is stuck
>> with sqlite dependency anyway? Is my understanding correct?
> 
> Don't forget that having a good support for a relational database opens
> new possibilities. It may not be the fastest way of storing individual
> values but sometimes a relational database and its search capabilities
> are necessary.

I think the argument below is still mostly sound:
> On Dec 14, 2021, at 9:58 AM, Tomas Hlavaty <tom@logand.com> wrote:
> 
> No, the issue is not if Emacs supports sqlite.
> Emacs supports many things depending on the definition of "support".
> 
> The issue is that Emacs now depends on sqlite.
> Even though the reason for introducing this dependency
> turned out to be wrong.

There’re lots of other ways to support relational databases in Emacs,
and they already exist outside of Emacs core. If using Emacs as a UI/client
to search/query capability of a underlying SQL database, it’s not likely
that it requires as much data to go through Emacs comparing to say
use database as a store facility for Elisp programs. And it’s totally viable
to just use subprocess mechanism, as in several existing packages
outside of Emacs core.

One may have to add it to Emacs core because some other part of
Emacs core need to use it. It’s not clear whether db should be added
to core or those parts should be moved out of, but it’s irrelevant to
the “possibility” argument. The possibility already exists because good
support for sqlite exists as independent packages.