Let's turn WebDatabase into a WG Note

Hi guys,

I've been thinking about the WebDatabase specification [1] and I've  
come to two conclusions.  (1) We are miles away from consensus on this  
specification, and, hence, we should _not_ consider putting it out for  
last call.  (2)  While good work has gone into the IDL/JavaScript Call  
Level Interface (CLI), we have made no progress on its SQL language  
specification and are not likely to in the future. Thus we should  
publish the CLI as a WG Note titled "WebSQLDatabase CLI" and curtail  
active work on this specification in the working group. This is  
Oracle's official position on this matter.

It's not that we aren't brilliant engineers, it's just that we've been  
stuck with a conundrum without a suitable solution:
Standardizing on a SQL CLI without specifying the SQL accepted by the  
CLI will lead to non-interoperable implementations jeopardizing the  
goal of this working group - to have a consistent technique for  
managing stored data in user agents.
Standardizing on a language with no readily available implementation  
will delay adoption and place an unreasonable burden on user agent  
vendors.
Standardizing on the SQL accepted by the CLI based on what is  
implemented in a certain library (SQLite to be precise) will preclude  
multiple independent implementations, which is unacceptable as a  
public standard.

So my suggestion is that rather than wrapping this conundrum in an  
enigma, we wrap it in a WG Note until we find ourselves in a new  
situation and the answer either becomes apparent or irrelevant.

I may not be able to follow up on all the replies as I am on vacation  
later this week. If so, I apologize in advance and will do my best to  
reply immediately once I return.

Thanks,
Nikunj Mehta
http://o-micron.blogspot.com

[1] http://dev.w3.org/html5/webdatabase/