Aciqra: Migration to SQLite

Posted July 22, 2010 by User 1

The migration of Aciqra to SQLite begins today. We have many reasons for this switch. The biggest one is speed. We simply cannot compete with the speed of a SQL database in getting a list of thousands of stars ordered by magnitude that are in a certain part of the sky. If we wrote code for that manually, Aciqra simply would not be usable and would be impossibly slow.

The other major reason is that it saves time. Not only does everything work better, but because we aren't the ones writing the code, it gives us a big boost in productivity allowing focus to be set elsewhere (like making the thing actually work). The only additional code that needs to be written is a few hundred lines to adapt Aciqra to use SQLite databases and to make the databases themselves. While it may seem like a lot to a non-programmer, it is nothing compared to the thousands we would've otherwise required to have similar functionality.

The migration will begin with code written to create the databases from what we have right now. This code will not be publicly released nor does the Aciqra License require so since SQLite databases ARE in the format that they are most easily modified in. Therefore, expect a period of relative calm as the catalogs all get converted. It may end up that only 1 big catalog will be distributed by default containing the data of all the smaller ones that are in Subversion today.

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