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Why Is SQLite Coded In C

sqlite.org

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Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#51

Post by saalweachter »

I think beyond the historical reasons why C was the best choice when SQLite was being developed, or the advantages it has today, there's also just no reason to rewrite SQLite in another language.

We don't have to have one implementation of a lightweight SQL database. You can go out right now and start your own implementation in Rust or C++ or Go or Lisp or whatever you like! You can even make compatible APIs for it so that it can be a drop-in replacement for SQLite! No one can stop you! You don't need permission!

But why would we want to throw away the perfectly good C implementation, and why would we expect the C experts who have been carefully maintaining SQLite for a quarter century to be the ones to learn a new language and start over?

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#52

Post by lionkor »

slashdev wrote: post #31

This is ignoring the elephant in the room: SQLite is being rewritten in Rust and it's going quite well. https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso It has async I/O support on Linux with io_uring, vector support, BEGIN CONCURRENT for improved write throughput using multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), Encryption at rest, incremental computation using DBSP for incremental view maintenance and query subscriptions. Time…

So they have much worse test coverage than sqlite

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#53

Post by steveklabnik »

jokoon wrote: post #43

I wonder if the hype helps rust being a better language At this point I wish the creators of the language could talk about what rust is bad at.

Folks involved often do! Talking about what’s not great is the only path towards getting better, because you have to identify pain points in order to fix them.

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#54

Post by [deleted] »

anitil wrote: post #38
bfkwlfkjf wrote: post #16

> Safe languages insert additional machine branches to do things like verify that array accesses are in-bounds. In correct code, those branches are never taken. That means that the machine code cannot be 100% branch tested, which is an important component of SQLite's quality strategy. Huh it's not everyday that I hear a genuinely new argument. Thanks for sharing.

It's the sort of argument that I wouldn't accept from most people and most projects, but from Dr Hipp isn't most people and Sqlite isn't most projects.

[deleted]

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#55

Post by oconnor663 »

jasonthorsness wrote: post #21

“None of the safe programming languages existed for the first 10 years of SQLite's existence. SQLite could be recoded in Go or Rust, but doing so would probably introduce far more bugs than would be fixed, and it may also result in slower code.” Modern languages might do more than C to prevent programmers from writing buggy code, but if you already have bug-free code due to massive time, attention, and testing, and t…

> and the rate of change is low (or zero)

This jives with a point that the Google Security Blog made last year: "The [memory safety] problem is overwhelmingly with new code...Code matures and gets safer with time."

https://security.googleblog.com/2024/09/eliminating-memory-s...

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#58

Post by blibble »

slashdev wrote: post #31

This is ignoring the elephant in the room: SQLite is being rewritten in Rust and it's going quite well. https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso It has async I/O support on Linux with io_uring, vector support, BEGIN CONCURRENT for improved write throughput using multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), Encryption at rest, incremental computation using DBSP for incremental view maintenance and query subscriptions. Time…

> Time will tell, but this may well be the future of SQLite.

turdso is VC funded so will probably be defunct in 2 years

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#59

Post by sema4hacker »

"Why SQLite is coded in C..." is an explanation, as documented at sqlite.org.

"Why is SQLite coded in C and not Rust?" is a question, which immediately makes me want to ask "Why do you need SQLite coded in Rust?".

Re: Why Is SQLite Coded In C

#60

Post by rednafi »

Also, Rust needs a better stdlib. A crate for every little thing is kinda nuts.

One reason I enjoy Go is because of the pragmatic stdlib. On most cases, I can get away without pulling in any 3p deps.

Now of course Go doesn’t work where you can’t tolerate GC pauses and need some sort of FFI. But because of the stdlib and faster compilation, Go somehow feels lighter than Rust.

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