Re: [WebSQL] Any future plans, or has IndexedDB replaced WebSQL?

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Aryeh Gregor <Simetrical+w3c@gmail.com> wrote:
> So if the only objection to WebSQL is "there's no way we're going to
> get a formal spec or two interoperable implementations", I'd really
> encourage objectors to step back and ask themselves why they *want* a
> formal spec and two interoperable implementations.  Those requirements
> are not axiomatic, they're means to obtain practical ends like
> allowing competitions and avoiding user lock-in.  How many of those
> ends are really contrary to using SQLite as a de facto standard, and
> do the remaining ones really outweigh the practical advantages?

The standard reason for not depending on a reference implementation
still apply - if you depend on a reference implementation, then you
implicitly depend on its bugs as well.

This isn't a huge problem for individual projects, which can work
around the bugs on their own, and more importantly, fix their code if
they update to a new version without those bugs.  As you know, the web
doesn't work like that.  If we all exposed the same implementation of
sqlite, the body of code on the web would grow to meet and depend on
all the bugs in that implementation.  Any bugfixes would have an
associated compatibility cost, which is much larger than normal
because all browsers agreed on the bug.

We try to require two independent implementations for the same reason
you're not allowed to have children with your siblings - multiple
implementations with the same bugs are much worse than multiple
implementations with different sets of bugs, even if the total
quantity of bugs is higher in the latter situation.

~TJ

(I didn't realize I was heading toward an incest analogy when I
started this reply.  I stand by my decision.)

Received on Friday, 1 April 2011 16:53:25 UTC