Wouldn't it be cool if the open source RDBMS of the world got together to define a common protocol for debugging stored procedures? This opens up the possibility to share GUI tools and more importantly expertise in making it work to begin with.
This idea dawn on me after reading a thread on stored procedure debugging on the pgsql-hackers list. The other day I was talking to Derick and he mentioned that MySQL also have had an interest in his DBGp debugging protocol. Avid readers of my blog know how fond I am of the idea of using common standards in this area.
So maybe we can get a brought alliance of open source RDBMS developers to work on a common standard? I have been hoping for some solid cooperation materializing out of the Open Source DB Consortium that has been floating around since the first preliminary meeting last fall in Frankfurt. To date there is only a mailinglist with very little discussion at all. There has not even been an agreement on the charter of the consortium so it is still far from being formally or officially established. Which is highlighted by the lack of content on the website.
Somewhat unrelated: I also heard of another interesting eclipse proposal. This time its not PHP specific, but instead focused at web scripting languages in general. Lets see what comes of this ..
As a tool developer, supporting both MySQL and Firebird in our product, we sure would welcome such a standard.
--
Martijn Tonies
Upscene Productions
Lukas,
Of course, if you read the pgsql-hackers thread, you did notice the difficulties even behind standardizing the 12+ PostgreSQL SP languages. In some ways, it would be easier to work out a standard that covered PL/pgSQL and MySQL-PSM than one which covered PL/pgSQL and PL/Ruby.
--Josh Berkus
Exactly. I do not see how it would be that much harder to find a good protocol that covers additional RDBMS if you guys are currently already looking to handle that many different SP languages. Especially if that means you will get additional top notch brains to work on this and if you have the opportunity to also attract the development of more GUI implementations for the final solution.
So its just a question of taking that and open up eventhough we all know that there are pretty deep trenches dug out between all the OSS RDBMS camps.
