Comment by simonw
1 year ago
That comment where he explains why he's not rushing to add new unproven SQL syntax to SQLite is fascinating:
> My goal is to keep SQLite relevant and viable through the year 2050. That's a long time from now. If I knew that standard SQL was not going to change any between now and then, I'd go ahead and make non-standard extensions that allowed for FROM-clause-first queries, as that seems like a useful extension. The problem is that standard SQL will not remain static. Probably some future version of "standard SQL" will support some kind of FROM-clause-first query format. I need to ensure that whatever SQLite supports will be compatible with the standard, whenever it drops. And the only way to do that is to support nothing until after the standard appears.
It's so ambitious in an almost boring way, exactly the right steward for a project like this
Dr. Hipp is one of my heroes. He seems to labor quietly in semi obscurity for decades, and at the end of it he's produced some amazing software. I was tickled by the curfuffle over his use of a set of guidelines for living in a Christian monastery as SQLite's code of ethics for the purpose of checking a box on an RFQ (part of the fallout of the libsql fork), because he does seem like a sort of programmer monk. (For what it's worth, as an agnostic, I've read them several times and found them unobjectionable. While I think the drama was unnecessary, the libsql people are doing interesting work.)
I choose never to meet this man and be disabused of this notion. Shine on, doctor.
In fairness, I think the complaint over the tongue-in-cheek 'code of conduct' was that it was transparently unsuitable if considered as an actual code of conduct (i.e. a list of rules that SQLite contributors must obey in order to participate in the project). For example, it seems unlikely that Dr. Hipp would wish to exclude contributors who have committed adultery, or who do not pray with sufficient frequency.
(The erstwhile code of conduct is now labeled a 'code of ethics', and AFAIK SQLite has no official CoC currently.)
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