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To: python-list@python.org
From: Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: 'Lite' Databases (Re: sqlite3 and dates)
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 03:43:36 +0000
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On 19/02/2015 02:13, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Chris Angelico wrote:
>
>>> SQLite misses some important features that makes it better suited as a
>>> simple datastore, not much unlike shelve. And network use is not one
>>> of them, since you can actually implement concurrent sqlite access by
>>> coding an intermediate layer. Assuming of course we are talking about
>>> a small number of concurrent users.
>>
>> This is what I was saying: it's fine for purposes like Firefox's
>> bookmarks and settings and such (which I think was what it was
>> originally developed for?). Not so fine over a network.
>
> The sheer number of Firefox bugs related to its use of SQLite says
> different.
>
> Once upon a time, Firefox's config, bookmarks, etc. were stored in plain
> text files. At worst they were HTML. You could trivially read them, copy
> them, restore them and even (if you were careful) edit them using the text
> editor of your choice. Many a time I was on one machine, wanted to know a
> bookmark from another machine, so I would ssh across to the other machine
> and run grep over the bookmark file.
>
> No more. Firefox still keeps a bookmark HTML file, but it never seems to be
> synced with the actual bookmarks. Settings are stored in an opaque blob,
> rather than human-readable text, limiting what you can do with it. It's very
> nice that Firefox offers about:config but not so nice that you can't do the
> same thing without the GUI running.
>
> If Firefox crashes, there are failure modes where it can no longer read your
> bookmarks, or keep history. I don't mean that history won't persist across
> restarts, I mean that *within a single session* it cannot remember what page
> you came from so you can hit the Back button and return to it. WTF?
>
> I swear, if not for the fact that every single other browser is worse, I
> would dump Firefox in a second.
>

After a wonderful relationship lasting many happy years I dumped Firefox 
a few weeks ago for Chrome.  A few anxious moments gave me pause for 
thought, but overall I'm happy to have changed.  However is anybody 
aware of a "new kid on the block" that could take over as I'd happily 
switch again?  Nothing has sprung out at me, hence the choice I made.

-- 
My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask
what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence