Yes, Rasmus hit the nail on the button!
> So yes, while I agree with the general sentiment of moving more stuff to
> PECL, for fundamental things like PCRE, Session and now SQL-access to flat
> files, that make up the core of what makes PHP what it is, I think this
> should be bundled.
The two major problems I see with PHP code these days:
a) They use flatfiles where SQL, or some form of ordered storage, would
be beneficial.
b) They use RDBM's where flatfiles, or dbm files would be more expedient
(a weblog system, for example).
SQLite fills the niche so perfectly, and in very few lines of code.
Don't think of SQLite as a database server - that would be terrible to
bundle with PHP.
Think of SQLite as a next generation interface to flat files, fopen(),
fread() and friends should only be used when interacting with other data
sources, because SQLite makes everything so simple (and more
efficient.) No more custom formats, no more worrying about file
locking, paging, no more worrying about the most efficient way to get
data out of a file, and save data into a file. SQLite handles all of
this for you, providing a simple SQL interface for accessing that data.
In order for SQLite to become a replacement for fopen(), it needs to be
bundled. Available everywhere, and available for everyone. It really
costs us nothing.
-Sterling
On Tue, 2003-06-24 at 10:57, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
> One of the main reasons PHP has reached the popularity it has today is
> because it was mindnumbingly easy to get started with it and you could do
> so many things with a default PHP installation. You can't twirl a wet cat
> without hitting servers with Gallery, PHP-Nuke, PHPBB or one of the other
> dozen or so pervasive PHP applications and these applications would not
> have become so popular had PHP not had enough default functionality to
> allow someone to write these apps to work on a default PHP install. They
> also tend to be smart enough to detect advanced features and then make use
> of those to make the app function somewhat better.
>
> Having what is essentially an SQL-driver for flat files as a standard PHP
> feature is going to raise the bar for many of these applications that,
> like it or not, drive PHP usage. Gallery is a perfect example of this.
> Have you had a look at the code? Check out all the nasty flat file
> manipulation code in that thing. It's painful to read through all that.
> The primary reason the Gallery author did this was because he wanted to
> make sure Gallery would run everywhere on every shared server. And as a
> result the code is both messy and the app is nowhere near as good as it
> could be.
>
> So yes, while I agree with the general sentiment of moving more stuff to
> PECL, for fundamental things like PCRE, Session and now SQL-access to flat
> files, that make up the core of what makes PHP what it is, I think this
> should be bundled. PHP has never been just a scripting engine with some
> cool add-ons. PHP has always been the solution to the Web problem with
> even more bonus add-ons. And as I have said so many times, PHP is not
> about purity in CS principles or architecture, it is about solving the
> ugly web problem with an admittedly ugly, but extremely functional and
> convenient solution. If you are looking for purity you are in the wrong
> boat. Get out now before you get hit by a wet cat!
>
> -Rasmus
--
"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems."
- Linus Torvalds
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