std.database

[Erik Smith via Digitalmars-d]

> 1. In my opinion it should not be called std.database, but 
> let's say "std.dbc".
> This is because it looks like a wrapper over db clients.  
> Moreover one may say it's almost impossible to make a common 
> and effective interface which would work with all databases. 
> e.g. someone on Wikipedia argues ODBC is obolete (check "ODBC 
> today")

I agree that std.dbc would be more accurate, although I like 
std.database better because it is more recognizable.  Another 
option could be std.database.client.

ODBC is less important now as there are fewer desktop 
applications that connect directly to databases.  There is at 
least one example related to D, which is the ODBC driver for 
presto, which is used in Excel.  Server side code is generally 
written using the underlying native client directly.  However 
ODBC support is useful in that it represents a catch all that 
covers all databases for which a native client is not yet 
supported.

At least for the SQL databases, a standard interface is 
definitely achievable and I believe that it having it would allow 
D to get more traction as an application platform.

> 2. I'm not against such a functionality in Phobos. However your 
> project seems to be a duplication of the DDBC project. And it 
> was not proposed for inclusion so often.

There are a number of areas where this design is an improvement 
over DDBC: ease-of-use, better resource management (no scope, no 
GC), phobos compatibility, to name a few.  There is a lot more 
that needs to be added to make it standards grade.


> 3. What I call a D Database API could be described as:
>  - Database object
>  - DbCollection object (equivalent to array)
>  - ranges + std.algorithm

My design is indeed range based:  stmt.range() returns a forward 
range proxy for the query results (the accessor name might change 
however).

Your engine project is interesting.  I think there is common 
ground in the interfaces in the two projects, particularly in how 
the interface for the results might work. I will look more 
closely at the details to see what might be workable.

erik