[development] Generating schemas (was no DROP TABLE in sql files)

[Robert Douglass]

Adrian, what you described, along with the field type concept in CCK, 
makes for a nice CCK 2.0 where the actual data can be normalized. Add to 
this a great AJAX in-browser graphical schema editor, relations and your 
views proposal, and we're getting pretty darn close to the system I've 
been hoping Drupal would become :-)

-Robert


Adrian Rossouw wrote:
> I've actually been thinking ..
> 
> we now have db_add_column for updates ... would it not make sense to 
> introduce :
> 
> function db_create_table($name, $columns = array("col" => "type")) {
> 
> and of course db_create_index.
> 
>  From an install system perspective, it might be really useful to 
> actually keep a catalog of
> what tables are created by drupal itself, and it would help us be able 
> to manage things
> like shared tables directly from Drupal.
> 
> We might even be able to automatically generate some of the updates / 
> schemas.
> ie: when someone commits a new .install file, it dry runs the _install 
> function and
> then sees if any columns / tables have been added , and then creates 
> _update_<x>
> stub functions for that automatically.