[Haskell-cafe] RE: [Haskell] Haskell DB bindings (was Re: ANN: HDBC (HaskellDatabase Connectivity)

[Björn Bringert]

Bayley, Alistair wrote:
> [Moving to café, too]
> 
> 
>> There are three active database libraries: HDBC, HSQL and Takusen.
>> It is quite disappointing from my point of view. Recently there was
>> the same situation with the GUI libraires. The Haskell Community is
>> quite small to waste efforts, developing different libraries for
>> the same things. When I started with HSQL there were only two
>> database libraries: HaSQL for ODBC and libpq for PostgreSQL. They
>> both are dead, I think. I decided that it is useful to have one
>> abstract API that can cover all database bindings. I imagine
>> something like JDBC, ADO or DBI for Haskell. If you guys would like
>> this to happen then lets discuss what we want. I would be happy to
>> work on single project that can satisfy all needs.
>> 
>> Cheers, Krasimir
> 
> 
> 
>> ... The Haskell Community is quite small to waste efforts,
>> developing different libraries for the same things.
> 
> 
> Yes, that could be considered undesirable. However, there is the
> choice for users over which API to choose that best supports their
> needs. In the use of an enumerator, Takusen has chosen quite a
> different design space from HSQL and HDBC. Whether or not that proves
> to be a good idea, or attractive to users, remains to be seen :-)
> 
> HaskellDB+HSQL seems to be to be the most mature, and actively
> maintained. Although I'm keen to progress Takusen, I find it hard at
> present to take the necessary time, so work seems to stall. I'd have
> no bone to pick with HaskellDB+HSQL being promoted as the default
> database API, but I still want to work on Takusen, because I think
> there are some ideas worth exploring.
> 
> When I started Takusen, I was specifically interested in using
> HaskellDB to interface to Oracle. At the time, HaskellDB did not use
> HSQL, and HSQL lacked a unifying interface, so I started work on a
> low-level library to Oracle (I was also keen to learn to use the
> FFI). The design later evolved towards the enumerator approach (Oleg
> persuaded me that it was a good idea) and the HaskellDB goal was
> never reached. Now that HSQL supports Oracle, I can choose to use
> HaskellDB with Oracle, so I suppose my original goal has been
> satisfied.

Just for the record, the current darcs version of HaskellDB [1] works 
with both HSQL and HDBC.

/Björn

[1] darcs get --partial http://cvs.haskell.org/darcs/haskelldb/