>From: "Mrs. Brisby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > But it would make the engine more complex- for a direction that isn't > standard, ...
All of the proposed changes are in fact part of the SQL:1999 standard. Since all the proposed changes are related to SQL data typing, they are fundamentally in contradiction with SQLite's typeless nature. The multi-values fields are called Collection or Array Types in the standard. Several different collection types, such as sets and lists, were considered by the committee, but only arrays made into the standard. These are variable length arrays (up to a fixed maximum size specified in the declaration, like a character varying field) of any data type except an array type. The structure-valued fields are called Structured Types in the standard. These are general user defined non-recursive structured data types. Once defined any field can be declared to hold the new type. The standard also has a Reference Type, a type used to hold references to rows in typed tables. The standard also has a new kind of type alias called a Distinct Type (that was not proposed as a new SQLite feature). This is a user defined alias for a standard SQL type. For example, PRICE can be declared as a DECIMAL(5,2). These types are used to enforce strong type checking. These types are primarily used in SQL:1999 to support advanced features such as SQL procedures, object oriented database techniques, etc. which are really not consistent with the "lite" part of SQLite. Some like the proposed structured fields and arrays might make it easier to implement simple databases in a more direct manner. At least for people with more experience with "normal" programming who are not familiar with relational database concepts I think this could be true. They may not know what kind of flexibility they are giving up by abandoning the relational model, but then again they may not care either. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
