[hfdb] Re: Grand Unified Hardware Database

[Richard Stallman]

    I'm sorry to begin this way, but I have to tell you: using XML *instead*
    of an RDBMS is breathtakingly bad idea.  You're ignoring all the benefits
    of an RDBMS.  Do I have to convince you those benefits are both real and
    substantial?  

You would have to convince me, but it isn't the issue.  If you want to
put the information in a DBMS, that's fine.  My concern is how to
store and edit the data

    We are embarking on a project that is afaict an order of magnitude more
    complex than any "similar" project.

No, it is much simpler.  We want to tell people which hardware devices
are supported by free software, and (if it is feasible) which drivers
are available and where.  This is much less information than the
printer data base has.

We can certainly look for additional information that might be nice to
add.  But that would make the project far more complex, and then we
could not get it done without a lot of money.  If we want to produce
what is essential, we have to try to simplify the project, not extend
it.

Later on, once things are going, people could add more kinds of info
to the data base--if they have time.