Hi all, LibreOffice have decided to no longer maintain the HsqlDB 1.8 embedded database and replace it with an embedded database based on Firebird.
I have chosen to rewrite the entire com.sun.star.sdbc/sdbcx and sdb layer in pure Java (i.e. jdbcDriverOOo). I have chosen to port all databases, providing a JDBC driver with an integrated engine and the ability to create a new database upon connection if it doesn't exist, as an embedded database in LibreOffice. (ie: HyperSQLOOo, SQLiteOOo, JaybirdOOo, H2dbOOo and DerbyOOo). Since nothing was planned for this in LibreOffice I had to, with the precious help of some of you, publish the bug tdf# <https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156471>156471 <https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156471> then a correction PR# <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/154989>154989 <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/154989> to support integrated databases in a generic way. Although this fix was released on 2023-07-28, it will not be available until version 24.2, almost six months later. Now I have overcome a problem that all LibreOffice UNO components written in Java have, namely the inability to deploy Java SPI services. This was overcome thanks to the use of Java instrumentation with tdf# <https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165774>165774 <https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165774> and the deprecated PR# <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/181159>181159 <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/181159> and then again and finally PR# <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/183280>183280 <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/183280>. Again, this new functionality will only be usable with version 25.8, which is not even available yet, even though the latest version of jdbcDriverOOo is capable of offering these new services. And unfortunately, no one really helped me, but rather deliberately complicated things... I would like to point out that it was very difficult and long to implement from a human point of view, given the few lines of code it contains, and I even thought at one point that you were going to refuse this PR... I had to prepare two in order to achieve my goals. In short, all this doesn't really correspond to collaboration but more to an unhealthy competition that I can't explain. This sounds very similar to your Open Letter from LibreOffice to Apache OpenOffice <https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ja0q8v/open_letter_from_libreoffice_to_apache_openoffice/>, which I believe was requesting more space for LibreOffice. I'm asking you for exactly the same thing: please give me a little space... and give me a mentor... Sincerely, Pierre Vacher
