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Agreed - Javascript Standard Library - is a simple but brilliant idea. Optional, so nobody is forced to use it, but if a library has useful functionality, seems

Agreed - Javascript Standard Library - is a simple but brilliant idea. Optional, so nobody is forced to use it, but if a library has useful functionality, seems to me to be a no-brainer to me to use such, likely to be higher quality and more performant. Let’s hope they can bring back WebSQL as such a library, Microsoft and Firefox’s appalling decision to drop the amazing SQLite from browsers and force in the inferior IndexDB, needs to be reversed. A local RDBMS is required, to enable PWAs to more easily match desktop capability.

virtualwhys 8y ago
> Let’s hope they can bring back WebSQL Agreed, although having the implementation defined exclusively by Sqlite (which is why IndexedDB became the standard browser database) remains a rather large sticking point. Aside from the standards group reverting the deprecation of WebSQL, Firefox adoption has dwindled to dangerous lows, and Microsoft now bases their browser on Chrome, so in the not too distant future one could simply target the dominant browsers, Chrome and Safari, and use WebSQL, deprecated or not (if in 10 years Chrome and Safari haven't removed WebSQL, when will they?). Unlikely WebSQL will make a comeback though, frontend devs seem to like NoSQL-style structured data, which maps well to JavaScript object notation. Would be great to write the same relational SQL on server and client, but that's a pipe dream unless a drastic shift in standards committe direction happens.
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  Does anyone use non-mobile safari?
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Yes and even though you haven’t owned a TV in 15 years,people still watch TV too....
  - acdha 8y ago
    On a fairly broad-interest site I just checked, Safari is the second most-popular browser behind Chrome. Even if you exclude iOS, which doesn't make sense for most sites, it's in the same range as either Internet Explorer or Edge.
- benjaminjackman 8y ago
  Maybe it will be possible to compile Sqlite to wasm and then using indexdb as a backing store for it. In which case perhaps a good enough polyfill would be accessible to Firefox.
  - virtualwhys 8y ago
    The issue there is that each client/user has to download the wasm binary, unlike WebSQL where Sqlite comes bundled with the browser for free -- there are issues there as well, versioning/security, but not having to download anything is pretty nice, like the KV storage option, it's there to use immediately, no download, no parsing overhead.
acdha 8y ago
WebSQL is an interesting case: I like the capabilities it offers but it wasn't standardized more than “whatever a particular version of SQLite does” and that lead to things like https://blade.tencent.com/magellan/ https://blade.tencent.com/magellan/ because the attack surface was broader than anticipated. I'd like it to come back but also in a more considered form with some API improvements — exactly the kind of thing you'd get out of it going through the standards process with more than one implementation.

virtualwhys 8y ago

> Let’s hope they can bring back WebSQL Agreed, although having the implementation defined exclusively by Sqlite (which is why IndexedDB became the standard browser database) remains a rather large sticking point. Aside from the standards group reverting the deprecation of WebSQL, Firefox adoption has dwindled to dangerous lows, and Microsoft now bases their browser on Chrome, so in the not too distant future one could simply target the dominant browsers, Chrome and Safari, and use WebSQL, deprecated or not (if in 10 years Chrome and Safari haven't removed WebSQL, when will they?). Unlikely WebSQL will make a comeback though, frontend devs seem to like NoSQL-style structured data, which maps well to JavaScript object notation. Would be great to write the same relational SQL on server and client, but that's a pipe dream unless a drastic shift in standards committe direction happens.

bradleyjg 8y ago
Does anyone use non-mobile safari?
- scarface74 8y ago
  Yes and even though you haven’t owned a TV in 15 years,people still watch TV too....
- acdha 8y ago
  On a fairly broad-interest site I just checked, Safari is the second most-popular browser behind Chrome. Even if you exclude iOS, which doesn't make sense for most sites, it's in the same range as either Internet Explorer or Edge.
benjaminjackman 8y ago
Maybe it will be possible to compile Sqlite to wasm and then using indexdb as a backing store for it. In which case perhaps a good enough polyfill would be accessible to Firefox.
- virtualwhys 8y ago
  The issue there is that each client/user has to download the wasm binary, unlike WebSQL where Sqlite comes bundled with the browser for free -- there are issues there as well, versioning/security, but not having to download anything is pretty nice, like the KV storage option, it's there to use immediately, no download, no parsing overhead.

acdha 8y ago

WebSQL is an interesting case: I like the capabilities it offers but it wasn't standardized more than “whatever a particular version of SQLite does” and that lead to things like https://blade.tencent.com/magellan/ https://blade.tencent.com/magellan/ because the attack surface was broader than anticipated. I'd like it to come back but also in a more considered form with some API improvements — exactly the kind of thing you'd get out of it going through the standards process with more than one implementation.