The Google Gears stuff is still on the brain :)
Pulled the source code to take a look at it. The database code is laid out in the "database" directory. It is split up for each browser, with a "common" directory (though little seems to be common). The code is written in C++, with an object type of "GearsDatabase" representing the database itself. The code is lightly commented, but the naming conventions make the code self readable. There is more database code then what is found in this directory though, so there is not a full encapsulation of the database code.
And the real question I wanted to answer for myself?
What about making MySQL work?
We could make MySQL work and reuse the Google code. Not cleanly though... there interfaces weren't written to make it a very clean implementation. We would also run into the problems of:
I wish that the writer of the code would have used an abstraction layer, maybe the new one for databases found in the Apache APR. That would have made it a bit easier to integrate multiple databases. I wouldn't have picked ODBC, only because I would rather tell a user to stick a fork in their own index finger then explain how to get an ODBC driver working.
It is a shame that the Safari support isn't complete yet, if it was I would take a crack at doing a quick port. Its not though, and I don't have the time/tools chain to do the Firefox one quickly.
I was asked this morning during an interview if there were any specific open source projects that a smart college student should start.
I'd take the Google Gears code and re-implement it for multiple databases (ok... I'd just do it for MySQL personally). The code is easy enough to follow, and I bet it wouldn't be more then a couple of weekends worth of work to make it work with a couple of like designed databases.
Sounds like fun, I don't have the time :)
