[Monodevelop-devel] Using SQLite as parser database

[Mike Krüger]

Hi

> This discussion should have been done before committing anything to
> trunk, but here it is anyway.
> 
> Migrating to SQLite only makes sense if it provides noticeable
> improvements in performance and memory use. Guessing that it will be
> better is not enough. We need real numbers before taking the decision
> to
> switch, and only do it if the numbers are so much better that pay off
> the burden of having a dependency on SQLite.
> 
> I might be wrong, but I don't believe that SQLite will be better than
> the ad-hoc database we are using in MD 1.0. I spent a lot of time
> tuning
> up the parser database, and I'm quite happy about how is it
> performing.
> 

Some more benefits for using a real database over an own implementation:

- It's reliable. Atomic transactions, threading - all solved.
- It's easy to look into the data using a command line client and SQL
statements

Its not just pure performance. Using a database will allow us for
example to switch the database software to a new implementation. And
databases and SQL are very easy to understood and to change.

I had to think about it too (I implemented the #develop database some
years ago which monodevelop inherited (but optimized I admit ^^)) -
after thinking about it the decision was easy - A database makes it
easier to change the model and to make complicated querys more
efficient. 

There are many more reasons using database software instead of own data
storage solutions - otherwise the whole database software would be
obsolete.

Regards
Mike