From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: sqlite3 Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:07:31 -0500 Message-ID: References: <87tufmjyai.fsf@gnus.org> <877dcil2sj.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <87czm98qi1.fsf@gnu.org> <87o85tcwm0.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <874k7ljwkr.fsf@gnus.org> <87fsr5cuzq.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <878rwx8mdn.fsf@gnu.org> <87r1aphuei.fsf@gnus.org> <837dcex6ub.fsf@gnu.org> <83a6h9tu1c.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="35880"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: eric@ericabrahamsen.net, larsi@gnus.org, cesar.mena@gmail.com, pipcet@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 11 05:09:21 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1mvthJ-0009BV-5Q for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 11 Dec 2021 05:09:21 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:38090 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mvthH-0001kf-7g for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:09:19 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:46074) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mvtff-0008Ie-Qt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:07:39 -0500 Original-Received: from [2001:470:142:3::e] (port=40424 helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mvtff-0007bp-Fv; Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:07:39 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=Date:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: mime-version; bh=TQrfVgZ8aizvYYAABn2RcqExVWUiqAMakaHPqX9E5eI=; b=TdLq5q5eYOFL UVfgLHYM9QPQFAkUXL+noHe1aWT75rj6J2XUFMm1nlZgY8EaSsRGlHFFEYY/JDiXbZaPLZvf2rxaC e/nKwLgGC0wji0O9NFLvXfpZlz1w2l3Rj1qXD3SldKX7U2thHsxFwCBaFA5UnjSPVlphlHGfbCFIQ AHlgaKSj24AQWdBv0dxBIBrg84Roij8qkquyB1xiAGqxNa2n3BfJMjii6UEe83474RPE1MhKYRVMq DwPAp7r1csJy4KUkoPg2IMTjb37MgE7zMX8uj0+XiNx2gO35Pumk8GBerI9G3L04O8AJrMQrfvEb9 Ypubb/k3+nYzlY1cj1fGxw==; Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mvtfX-0006zT-3Q; Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:07:31 -0500 In-Reply-To: <83a6h9tu1c.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Thu, 09 Dec 2021 22:14:39 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:281640 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > Which means what exactly? We use a tool, Diff, to compare text > files. We use another tool, sqldiff, to compare databases. Where's > the crucial difference that justifies rejecting the _capability_ of > working with a DB? The crucial difference between text files and sqlite3 databases, unless I'm mistaken about the latter, is that text files are simple and transparent, but sqlite3 databases are not. Because text files are simple and transparent, you can compare text files in many different ways: reading the two side by side, using diff, using wdiff, using M-x compare-windows, and there are probably more options. And you can fix them manually, too. Because sqlite3 databases are neither simple nor transparent, doing anything with them requires using specific sqlite3 tools. This is a major advantage for text files. Using database format has other advantages, and there are cases where they are important. Mainly when the text file is big or operating on it is slow. Nonetheless I contend that, for a user who stores limited quantities of persistent Emacs data, the text format is better. That doesn't imply Emacs should not support sqlite3. If you happen to store large amounts of persistent data, you might like saving persistent Emacs data that way. But it does imply that sqlite3 should not be the default way to store persistent Emacs data. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)