[Python-3000] Removing bsddb module from py3k (was Re: [Python-Dev] No beta2 tonight)

[Josiah Carlson]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 3:22 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Josiah Carlson wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Fred Drake <fdrake at acm.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Jul 18, 2008, at 1:45 PM, Josiah Carlson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> It's entirely possible that I know very little about what was being
>>>> made available via the bsddb module, but to match the API of what is
>>>> included in the documentation (plus the dictionary interface that it
>>>> supports) shouldn't be terribly difficult.
>>>
>>> It's also entirely possible that the API isn't interesting if you don't
>>> support existing databases, for many applications.
>>
>> I see where the confusion was.  I'm not suggesting that someone write
>> a new bsddb module, I'm suggesting that we can provide something
>> called, perhaps, on_disk_dictionary, which offers the behavior of
>> bsddb, without using bsddb anywhere, or supporting bsddb files.
>
> No, I knew what you were suggesting, I just don't see the point in doing it.
> If an app depends on bsddb specifically, they can either stick with the 2.x
> series, or they can move to 3.0 and download the externally maintained
> pybsddb (modulo any additional licensing checks required by a company's
> contracts department) or they can switch to a simpler file-based database
> format like sqlite3.
>
> I'm not clear on what problem you are attempting to solve with the idea of a
> module with the bsddb API but without an actual bsddb backend.

On-disk key -> value dictionary.  In every use of bsddb that I've seen
(or done myself), that's been the extent of it's use.  That's what I
*was* offering.  But it seems that everyone has had experience with
bsddb on a far deeper level (beyond dictionary + cursor access), and
would find (like you) absolutely no use in an on-disk dictionary with
a sqlite backend (which hasn't had the same maintenance issues as
bsddb), which is why I withdrew the offer.

 - Josiah