Hi Art,
This is Oracle's official position on Web SQL Database: Oracle does
not believe that Web SQL Database is ready for Last Call.
Oracle believes that:
1. It is not good for the industry to start a new SQL language
standard track. A better approach would be to define a profile based
on the existing SQL language standard, ISO/IEC 9075, that meets the
needs of Web applications. We should not ignore the many years of
work by that committee and the database community, and should instead
build on it.
2. The draft being proposed for Last Call, defines the SQL language by
referring to a particular version of the SQLite implementation. Such
a definition is not a valid standard as it does not allow for
alternative implementations. To turn this into a valid specification
we need to include a normative textual specification of the language
accepted by SQLite. We can start with the SQLite SQL language manual (http://www.sqlite.org/lang.html
), but again, just referring to this URL is not acceptable as a
normative specification.
3. Assuming that the editor decides to specify the SQL language by
including its normative textual specification, the WG needs time to
review this substantial amount of new material before sending this
proposal out to the larger community.
I want to remind the members that silence today means assent for Last
Call, which means they agree that: (1) A new SQL language standards
track is good, (2) Defining a bag of implementation bits as a standard
is good. Even if you personally have lost interest in this
specification and can't be bothered to respond, remember that we in
the WG have a collective responsibility to do no harm.
Nikunj
P. S. Consider this paragraph from the SQLite manual (http://www.sqlite.org/lang_droptable.html
):
The DROP TABLE statement does not reduce the size of the database
file in the default mode. Empty space in the database is retained
for later INSERT statements. To remove free space in the database,
use the VACUUM statement. If auto_vacuum mode is enabled for a
database then space will be freed automatically by DROP TABLE.
This is a perfectly fine behavior and a perfectly fine paragraph in a
manual. However this is not the kind of language you expect to see in
a standard where a wider range of behaviors is desired.
On Dec 7, 2009, at 4:46 PM, Arthur Barstow wrote:
This is a Call for Consensus (CfC) to publish a Last Call Working
Draft of the following specs:
1. Server-Sent Events
http://dev.w3.org/html5/eventsource/
2. Web SQL Database
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webdatabase/
3. Web Sockets API
http://dev.w3.org/html5/websockets/
4. Web Storage
http://dev.w3.org/html5/webstorage/
5. Web Workers
http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/
This CfC satisfies the group's requirement to "record the group's
decision to request advancement" to LCWD. Note that as specified in
the Process Document [PD], a Working Group's Last Call announcement
is a signal that:
* the Working Group believes that it has satisfied its relevant
technical requirements (e.g., of the charter or requirements
document) in the Working Draft;
* the Working Group believes that it has satisfied significant
dependencies with other groups;
* other groups SHOULD review the document to confirm that these
dependencies have been satisfied. In general, a Last Call
announcement is also a signal that the Working Group is planning to
advance the technical report to later maturity levels.
As with all of our CfCs, positive response is preferred and
encouraged and silence will be assumed to be assent. The deadline
for comments is 14 December.
The comment period length will be 6 months (ending ~17 June 2010 if
the LCWD is published ~ 17 December 2009) unless someone commits (by
15 December) to completing the review earlier including actively
editing the spec, responding to comments, etc.
-Regards, Art Barstow
[PD] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#last-call
Nikunj
http://o-micron.blogspot.com