6 ms·

SQLite: Code of Ethics

37 points by zrkrlc 6y ago

adamrezich 6y ago
That's pretty cool
- pcthrowaway 6y ago
  Care to elaborate? I felt strongly the opposite. It makes me more eager to move away from SQLite. I'm very far from religious, and this seems to be very strongly suggesting atheism is synonymous with immorality.
  - delian66 6y ago
    So? Who cares what a throwaway account thinks or feels? You are free to not use it.
    - muthdra 6y ago
      Gatekeeping internet account lifetimes.
    - boublepop 6y ago
      I care, and think it was a good addition to the discussion. Your post however is of no value at all. You are free to disagree about the argued points, but nothing is gained by you trying to argue others should not be allowed to engage in the discussion simply because they decided to use a throwaway.
      - gerhardhaering 6y ago
        I agree very much with you.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    The document is being sarcastic. However, be thankful for religion, with its absolutes, over the Marxist ideology being promoted in the West today, which has no morality.
  - xyzzy123 6y ago
    > No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea. The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.
  - pwgentleman 6y ago
    Maybe that says more about you than about the document authors, or the document itself. They have gone through the trouble of changing this from a Code of Conduct to a Code of Ethics, for the specific purpose of avoiding quarreling (their rule 66). You want to move away from SQLite just because you heard some developers are religious. I really prefer their attitude towards disagreement.
    - pcthrowaway 6y ago
      No, actually I have no issue with people being religious. I have plenty of religious friends who hail from many religions, and are very open-minded and loving towards others with different beliefs. This "Code" isn't saying that this is what the founder believes, and that they would like others to follow it. It's making a pretty unequivocal statement that the founder (and developers) believe that this is the "better" way to live: "Anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life" First of all, this is really unrelated to software or the utility of sqlite. But then we have "The founder of SQLite and all current developers have pledged to follow the spirit of The Rule to the best of their ability. They view The Rule as their promise to all SQLite users of how the developers are expected to behave" Well then, this is a pretty strong statement of their intention to limit the pool of sqlite contributors to those who follow this rule. "But sqlite is open source" you might think... but here's what they say: > SQLite is open-source, meaning that you can make as many copies of it as you want and do whatever you want with those copies, without limitation. But SQLite is not open-contribution. In order to keep SQLite in the public domain and ensure that the code does not become contaminated(!!) with proprietary or licensed content, the project does not accept patches from unknown persons ... > In order to keep SQLite completely free and unencumbered by copyright, the project does not accept patches. If you would like to make a suggested change, and include a patch as a proof-of-concept, that would be great. However please do not be offended if we rewrite your patch from scratch." So this is all news to me, and I think it's a pretty terrible way to run an open source project, or any project really. I wouldn't work at a company that had this rule. If the rule said "1. Only have sexual relations with people of the opposite sex, in the context of marriage" I suspect many people would wash their hands of it completely. But really, they've done a great job with sqlite as a piece of software, so kudos to the dogmatic yet exclusive group of authors for their work and dedication. In the meantime, I would be thrilled to see another file-based relational db take its place
  - gerhardhaering 6y ago
    This would not affect my decicion to use SQLite, which is still my choice for quick database setups. Not saying that they did it here, but the notion that atheism is synonymous with immorality would be absurd. It is usually quite the opposite, most orthodox religion leads to immorality due to the simple fact that it applies codes that might maybe have made sense centuries or millenia ago to modern day societies.
  - PhantomGremlin 6y ago
    It makes me more eager to move away from SQLite. Why? On another page I find: SQLite Is Public Domain All of the code and documentation in SQLite has been dedicated to the public domain by the authors. All code authors, and representatives of the companies they work for, have signed affidavits dedicating their contributions to the public domain https://sqlite.org/copyright.html https://sqlite.org/copyright.html Given that I'm free to do absolutely whatever I want with the code, why should I be seriously concerned about their code of ethics?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
lapinot 6y ago
Some is nice, up until the gratuitous references to christian religion. Lots of asceticism and charity, which is very not social by nature. Importantly there is almost nothing on evilness of power structures (how surprising). My personal take on it: 1. snip (cult) 2. Then, love your neighbor as yourself. 3. Do not murder. 4. snip (patriarchy) 5. Do not steal. [meh: unconditional private property is immoral quite often] 6. Do not covet. 7. Do not bear false witness. 8. Honor all people. 9. Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself. 10. snip (cult) 11. snip (cult) 12. Do not become attached to pleasures. [meh: asceticism] 13. Love fasting. [meh: asceticism] 14. Relieve the poor. [meh: charity, what made them poor?] 15. Clothe the naked. [meh: charity] 16. Visit the sick. [meh: charity] 17. Bury the dead. [meh: charity] 18. Be a help in times of trouble. 19. Console the sorrowing. 20. Be a stranger to the world's ways. [meh: definitely not in the way intended] 21. snip (cult) 22. Do not give way to anger. 23. Do not nurse a grudge. 24. Do not entertain deceit in your heart. 25. Do not give a false peace. 26. Do not forsake charity. 27. Do not swear, for fear of perjuring yourself. 28. Utter only truth from heart and mouth. 29. Do not return evil for evil. 30. Do no wrong to anyone, and bear patiently wrongs done to yourself. 31. Love your enemies. 32. Do not curse those who curse you, but rather bless them. 33. Bear persecution for justice's sake. [meh: martyr and asceticism] 34. Be not proud. 35. Be not addicted to wine. [meh: (social) disease] 36. Be not a great eater. [meh: asceticism] 37. Be not drowsy. 38. Be not lazy. 39. Be not a grumbler. 40. Be not a detractor. 41. snip (cult) 42. snip (cult) 43. Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself. 44. snip (cult) 45. snip (cult) 46. snip (cult) 47. Keep death daily before your eyes. 48. Keep constant guard over the actions of your life. 49. snip (cult) 50. snip (cult) 51. snip (cult) 52. snip (cult) 53. Do not love much talking. 54. Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter. 55. Do not love much or boisterous laughter. 56. snip (cult) 57. snip (cult) 58. snip (cult) 59. snip (chastity) 60. snip (authority) 61. snip (cult) 62. snip (cult) 63. snip (chastity) 64. Hate no one. 65. Be not jealous, nor harbor envy. 66. Do not love quarreling. 67. Shun arrogance. 68. Respect your seniors. [meh: conservatism, authority] 69. Love your juniors. 70. snip (cult) 71. Make peace with your adversary before the sun sets. 72. snip (cult) The good parts are imho pretty simple: be honest and transparent in your actions, loving of fellow sensible beings, forgo revenge, greed and manipulation and brutality, criticize yourself and pardon others (hello Postel!). As i said above, this is a moral philosophy for individuals and doesn't say much about social structures, which is a big shortcoming imho. Eg, "recognize groups of differing interests and negotiate with honesty and utilitarianism", "refuse to represent your peers unless they insist forcefully"...
mrozbarry 6y ago
I'm going to throw the unpopular opinion in the ring: I like their statement. I like that their team is able to have common beliefs among themselves, and can share those beliefs. There used to be an internet where people could share what they believe, and if you hated it, you just ignored it. While I am a Christian, I don't agree with 100% of this set of rules. For a small sample, > Chastise the body. > Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself. > Daily in your prayers, with tears and sighs, confess your past sins to God, and amend them for the future. > Obey in all things the commands of those whom God has placed in authority over you even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, "Do what they say, but not what they do." That is not biblical (well, those could be in the Catholic bible, not 100% sure) at all, but that's fine. Now we all know where they stand, and what they find important.
djsweet 6y ago
I think the comments here taking the religious references at face value are missing the point. > This document was [...] created for the purpose of filling in a box on "supplier registration" forms submitted to the SQLite developers by some clients. > [The developers of SQLite] have pledged to govern their interactions [...] in accordance with the "instruments of good works" from chapter 4 of The Rule of St. Benedict [...] This code of ethics has proven its mettle in thousands of diverse communities for over 1,500 years, and has served as a baseline for many civil law codes since the time of Charlemagne. Of course, there’s a link to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict > The Rule of Saint Benedict (Latin: Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written [...] for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The entirety of section 3 is literally a reproduction of chapter 4 of The Rule of Saint Benedict. Compare to https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.htm#chapter-4-nl-what-are-the-instruments-of-good-works https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.htm#ch... The explicit purpose of the document is further clarified in the third paragraph. > This document continues to be used for its original purpose - providing a reference to fill in the "code of conduct" box on supplier registration forms.

37 points by zrkrlc 6y ago

adamrezich 6y ago

That's pretty cool

pcthrowaway 6y ago
Care to elaborate? I felt strongly the opposite. It makes me more eager to move away from SQLite. I'm very far from religious, and this seems to be very strongly suggesting atheism is synonymous with immorality.
- delian66 6y ago
  So? Who cares what a throwaway account thinks or feels? You are free to not use it.
  - muthdra 6y ago
    Gatekeeping internet account lifetimes.
  - boublepop 6y ago
    I care, and think it was a good addition to the discussion. Your post however is of no value at all. You are free to disagree about the argued points, but nothing is gained by you trying to argue others should not be allowed to engage in the discussion simply because they decided to use a throwaway.
    - gerhardhaering 6y ago
      I agree very much with you.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  The document is being sarcastic. However, be thankful for religion, with its absolutes, over the Marxist ideology being promoted in the West today, which has no morality.
- xyzzy123 6y ago
  > No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea. The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.
- pwgentleman 6y ago
  Maybe that says more about you than about the document authors, or the document itself. They have gone through the trouble of changing this from a Code of Conduct to a Code of Ethics, for the specific purpose of avoiding quarreling (their rule 66). You want to move away from SQLite just because you heard some developers are religious. I really prefer their attitude towards disagreement.
  - pcthrowaway 6y ago
    No, actually I have no issue with people being religious. I have plenty of religious friends who hail from many religions, and are very open-minded and loving towards others with different beliefs. This "Code" isn't saying that this is what the founder believes, and that they would like others to follow it. It's making a pretty unequivocal statement that the founder (and developers) believe that this is the "better" way to live: "Anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life" First of all, this is really unrelated to software or the utility of sqlite. But then we have "The founder of SQLite and all current developers have pledged to follow the spirit of The Rule to the best of their ability. They view The Rule as their promise to all SQLite users of how the developers are expected to behave" Well then, this is a pretty strong statement of their intention to limit the pool of sqlite contributors to those who follow this rule. "But sqlite is open source" you might think... but here's what they say: > SQLite is open-source, meaning that you can make as many copies of it as you want and do whatever you want with those copies, without limitation. But SQLite is not open-contribution. In order to keep SQLite in the public domain and ensure that the code does not become contaminated(!!) with proprietary or licensed content, the project does not accept patches from unknown persons ... > In order to keep SQLite completely free and unencumbered by copyright, the project does not accept patches. If you would like to make a suggested change, and include a patch as a proof-of-concept, that would be great. However please do not be offended if we rewrite your patch from scratch." So this is all news to me, and I think it's a pretty terrible way to run an open source project, or any project really. I wouldn't work at a company that had this rule. If the rule said "1. Only have sexual relations with people of the opposite sex, in the context of marriage" I suspect many people would wash their hands of it completely. But really, they've done a great job with sqlite as a piece of software, so kudos to the dogmatic yet exclusive group of authors for their work and dedication. In the meantime, I would be thrilled to see another file-based relational db take its place
- gerhardhaering 6y ago
  This would not affect my decicion to use SQLite, which is still my choice for quick database setups. Not saying that they did it here, but the notion that atheism is synonymous with immorality would be absurd. It is usually quite the opposite, most orthodox religion leads to immorality due to the simple fact that it applies codes that might maybe have made sense centuries or millenia ago to modern day societies.
- PhantomGremlin 6y ago
  It makes me more eager to move away from SQLite. Why? On another page I find: SQLite Is Public Domain All of the code and documentation in SQLite has been dedicated to the public domain by the authors. All code authors, and representatives of the companies they work for, have signed affidavits dedicating their contributions to the public domain https://sqlite.org/copyright.html https://sqlite.org/copyright.html Given that I'm free to do absolutely whatever I want with the code, why should I be seriously concerned about their code of ethics?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

lapinot 6y ago

Some is nice, up until the gratuitous references to christian religion. Lots of asceticism and charity, which is very not social by nature. Importantly there is almost nothing on evilness of power structures (how surprising). My personal take on it: 1. snip (cult) 2. Then, love your neighbor as yourself. 3. Do not murder. 4. snip (patriarchy) 5. Do not steal. [meh: unconditional private property is immoral quite often] 6. Do not covet. 7. Do not bear false witness. 8. Honor all people. 9. Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself. 10. snip (cult) 11. snip (cult) 12. Do not become attached to pleasures. [meh: asceticism] 13. Love fasting. [meh: asceticism] 14. Relieve the poor. [meh: charity, what made them poor?] 15. Clothe the naked. [meh: charity] 16. Visit the sick. [meh: charity] 17. Bury the dead. [meh: charity] 18. Be a help in times of trouble. 19. Console the sorrowing. 20. Be a stranger to the world's ways. [meh: definitely not in the way intended] 21. snip (cult) 22. Do not give way to anger. 23. Do not nurse a grudge. 24. Do not entertain deceit in your heart. 25. Do not give a false peace. 26. Do not forsake charity. 27. Do not swear, for fear of perjuring yourself. 28. Utter only truth from heart and mouth. 29. Do not return evil for evil. 30. Do no wrong to anyone, and bear patiently wrongs done to yourself. 31. Love your enemies. 32. Do not curse those who curse you, but rather bless them. 33. Bear persecution for justice's sake. [meh: martyr and asceticism] 34. Be not proud. 35. Be not addicted to wine. [meh: (social) disease] 36. Be not a great eater. [meh: asceticism] 37. Be not drowsy. 38. Be not lazy. 39. Be not a grumbler. 40. Be not a detractor. 41. snip (cult) 42. snip (cult) 43. Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself. 44. snip (cult) 45. snip (cult) 46. snip (cult) 47. Keep death daily before your eyes. 48. Keep constant guard over the actions of your life. 49. snip (cult) 50. snip (cult) 51. snip (cult) 52. snip (cult) 53. Do not love much talking. 54. Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter. 55. Do not love much or boisterous laughter. 56. snip (cult) 57. snip (cult) 58. snip (cult) 59. snip (chastity) 60. snip (authority) 61. snip (cult) 62. snip (cult) 63. snip (chastity) 64. Hate no one. 65. Be not jealous, nor harbor envy. 66. Do not love quarreling. 67. Shun arrogance. 68. Respect your seniors. [meh: conservatism, authority] 69. Love your juniors. 70. snip (cult) 71. Make peace with your adversary before the sun sets. 72. snip (cult) The good parts are imho pretty simple: be honest and transparent in your actions, loving of fellow sensible beings, forgo revenge, greed and manipulation and brutality, criticize yourself and pardon others (hello Postel!). As i said above, this is a moral philosophy for individuals and doesn't say much about social structures, which is a big shortcoming imho. Eg, "recognize groups of differing interests and negotiate with honesty and utilitarianism", "refuse to represent your peers unless they insist forcefully"...

mrozbarry 6y ago

I'm going to throw the unpopular opinion in the ring: I like their statement. I like that their team is able to have common beliefs among themselves, and can share those beliefs. There used to be an internet where people could share what they believe, and if you hated it, you just ignored it. While I am a Christian, I don't agree with 100% of this set of rules. For a small sample, > Chastise the body. > Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself. > Daily in your prayers, with tears and sighs, confess your past sins to God, and amend them for the future. > Obey in all things the commands of those whom God has placed in authority over you even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, "Do what they say, but not what they do." That is not biblical (well, those could be in the Catholic bible, not 100% sure) at all, but that's fine. Now we all know where they stand, and what they find important.

djsweet 6y ago

I think the comments here taking the religious references at face value are missing the point. > This document was [...] created for the purpose of filling in a box on "supplier registration" forms submitted to the SQLite developers by some clients. > [The developers of SQLite] have pledged to govern their interactions [...] in accordance with the "instruments of good works" from chapter 4 of The Rule of St. Benedict [...] This code of ethics has proven its mettle in thousands of diverse communities for over 1,500 years, and has served as a baseline for many civil law codes since the time of Charlemagne. Of course, there’s a link to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict > The Rule of Saint Benedict (Latin: Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written [...] for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The entirety of section 3 is literally a reproduction of chapter 4 of The Rule of Saint Benedict. Compare to https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.htm#chapter-4-nl-what-are-the-instruments-of-good-works https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.htm#ch... The explicit purpose of the document is further clarified in the third paragraph. > This document continues to be used for its original purpose - providing a reference to fill in the "code of conduct" box on supplier registration forms.