[development] Extend database abstraction layer, to includetablecreation.

[Khalid B]

Regarding performance, given that creating  tables is such an
infrequent thing, and  even when done, it only affect a few tables,
the performance cost of  the new abstraction layer is negligible.

I am sort of conflicted on this new abstraction layer thing.

I agree that will make things much easier for everyone, and  hence has merit.

However, unless we go totally SQL-less (i.e. no one can write direct
SQL in Drupal modules, think ORM, e.g.  Active Record), this will only
take part of the issue (database portability) away, and not all of it.
People can still write non-portable SQL, although the table creation
part was taken care of.

So, this may give a false sense of total abstraction, while we do not
have it yet.

For an alternate view on abstraction (that I do not fully support mind
you, I think abstraction has merits), read Jeremy Zawodny's Database
Abstraction Layers Must Die.

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/002194.html

His main points are:

1. With abstraction layers, performance cannot be gained.

2. Changing databases is never easy for a large site.