[Haskell-cafe] Merge hsql and HDBC -- there can only be one!

[Jonathan Daugherty]

> Anyway, the point remains, we need a single goto database library.
>
> Though the lack of response to this thread makes me think no one
> particularly thinks this is a problem.

This is an interesting problem.  For my part, I suspect the
proliferation of high-level database libraries is going to continue.
If you were to convince the present package maintainers to pitch in
and build a Grand Database Library, inevitably someone would come
along and build another one for whatever reason.  Also, I don't think
the dust has settled on techniques for database access in Haskell in
any case, even for RDBMSs in particular.

Since I couldn't agree more that duplication of effort is a sad thing,
I think a good place to start is for people to write database library
binding-only packages that get used by higher-level libraries like
HDBC and Takusen.  Such libraries should include memory management
hooks specific to the sematics of the engine in question.  There are a
couple of libraries for this on Hackage already, but they don't appear
to be used by any of the high-level database abstraction libraries.

Otherwise I'd ask: what qualifies as a "go-to" library?  Which users
should it satisfy?  How accessible should it be?  Most answers I can
think of lead me to believe enough people will be put off by it that
other libraries will pop up. :)

-- 
  Jonathan Daugherty