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I'm still bitter that we could've had SQLite in the browser as WebSQL but it got killed off in favor of IndexedDB which is terrible. The code is in the public

I'm still bitter that we could've had SQLite in the browser as WebSQL but it got killed off in favor of IndexedDB which is terrible. The code is in the public domain. The spec could just say to include SQLite. IndexedDB implementations all use SQLite under the hood anyway, AFAIK.

hitekker 4y ago
Back then, many NoSQL/MongoDB opportunists were in positions of authority on the web. When WebSQL was discussed, those folks pushed the lie that "SQL is SQLite. Therefore, SQL does not belong in the browser". They pretended that SQLite and SQL APIs were the exact same thing, as if no browser could offer a dialect of SQL without fully exposing the database engine running under the hood. In their rhetoric, encapsulation was impossible, the specification was the implementation. With SQL and SQLite conflated, the opportunists were then able to wield the valid argument "SQlite is not a standard. Browsers should be based on standards" against the simple point "SQL ought to be a standard". Once they beat the more reasonable voices into submission and were then free to assert that only NoSQL can be standardized in the browser. Which misdirected years of efforts into IndexedDB. Nowadays, if you look up those opportunists on LinkedIn, you can see their NoSQL careers didn't quite go the way they were expecting. Their wrongdoing is a very, very sore point for them, and it's unfortunate the web had to pay for their hubris. For more details: https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memoriam/ https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memor...
LAC-Tech 4y ago
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Mozilla has it in for Richard Hipp. Wonder if there's some schadenfreude seeing Firefox fade rapidly into obscurity and SQLite continue to take over the world.
i5heu 4y ago
It is possible to have SQLite in WASM and use indexDB as a filesystem
- scrame 4y ago
  Yep, that'll make things better.

hitekker 4y ago

Back then, many NoSQL/MongoDB opportunists were in positions of authority on the web. When WebSQL was discussed, those folks pushed the lie that "SQL is SQLite. Therefore, SQL does not belong in the browser". They pretended that SQLite and SQL APIs were the exact same thing, as if no browser could offer a dialect of SQL without fully exposing the database engine running under the hood. In their rhetoric, encapsulation was impossible, the specification was the implementation. With SQL and SQLite conflated, the opportunists were then able to wield the valid argument "SQlite is not a standard. Browsers should be based on standards" against the simple point "SQL ought to be a standard". Once they beat the more reasonable voices into submission and were then free to assert that only NoSQL can be standardized in the browser. Which misdirected years of efforts into IndexedDB. Nowadays, if you look up those opportunists on LinkedIn, you can see their NoSQL careers didn't quite go the way they were expecting. Their wrongdoing is a very, very sore point for them, and it's unfortunate the web had to pay for their hubris. For more details: https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memoriam/ https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memor...

LAC-Tech 4y ago

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Mozilla has it in for Richard Hipp. Wonder if there's some schadenfreude seeing Firefox fade rapidly into obscurity and SQLite continue to take over the world.

i5heu 4y ago

It is possible to have SQLite in WASM and use indexDB as a filesystem

scrame 4y ago
Yep, that'll make things better.