[development] Extend database abstraction layer, to include table creation.

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Dries Buytaert wrote:
>
> On 12 May 2006, at 17:50, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
>>> Hundreds of books have been written about PHP and MySQL. As a 
>>> newbie, you can buy these books and understand what Drupal's MySQL 
>>> schemas mean.
>>
>> While that is true, most people don't buy these books. I think that 
>> Adrian's proposed scheme isn't harder to learn from scratch than the 
>> usual SQL queries. The only drawback is that when you learn plain SQL 
>> you can use it elsewhere too while you can't do so with Adrian's 
>> abstraction layer.
>
> No. If no one would buy these books, there wouldn't be as many available.

Well, I admit you got a point there. I always wondered who buys all 
these computer books and how many of the books just end up sitting in 
shelves and try to impress the casual visitor. :p

Do you own a book on PHP? If yes, did you buy it yourself? If yes, why?

The closest to buying a computer book I ever got was to print the AWK 
manual and to bind it.

And no, I am not writing this because I am trying to impress anybody.

>>> I'm not saying that the database definition function is a bad thing 
>>> or that we should drop it on the floor. We have to carefully 
>>> evaluate whether the advantages (portability) outweight the 
>>> drawbacks (less developers).
>>
>> Any developer worth the name should be easily able to understand this 
>> scheme if he has prior knowledge of SQL. If he hasn't then it doesn't 
>> matter (to us) if he learns plain SQL or our db abstraction layer.
>
> No. If you believe that is true, then the following holds as well: 
> "Any developer worth the name should be easily able to understand 
> PostgreSQL if he has prior knowledge of (My)SQL".

Yes, of course, the differences aren't that big. I only always ask the 
people who I know actually use PostgreSQL because I am too lazy to look 
it up, and they don't need to. I have no interest in PostgreSQL, so I 
don't learn it. But I am confident I could if I wanted to.

Cheers,
Gerhard