Rethinking Numeric

[Wm Tarr]

On 25/05/2014 15:07, John Ralls wrote:
> Database support? Remember, one of the requirements is that the 
> database fields need to be summable in queries, so any database we use 
> for the backend has to support the numeric representation. The ones on 
> offer in the popular SQL databases are 64-bit int, 64-bit IEEE 754, 
> and in all but SQLite3, fixed-point. 

The conversation seems to have moved on from database support for 
numbers but is it actually an issue for SQLite3 from a storage POV ?

SQLite3 isn't as strongly typed as the other supported DB's so there is 
no reason why numbers of arbitrary precision and significance couldn't 
be stored just as they are / could be with XML with the added advantage 
that in almost all situations it will recognise what is stored as a 
number and do something sensible with it.  The "is this sensible" 
checking would be less than required with XML as a backend.

It seems to me we are looking at edge cases and unless I've 
misunderstood gnc doesn't actually use the underlying DB except for 
storage anyway.  Or does this mean a move away from XML as a reference 
gnc file?

-- 
Wm