To be fair the ten commandments were written on a tablet.
SQLite creator crucified after code of conduct warns devs to love God, and not kill, commit adultery, steal, curse...
Open-source database SQLite has told its developers it expects them to follow Christ, love chastity, clothe the naked, and not murder, steal, nor sleep with their colleagues' spouses. That's the upshot of a somewhat untypical code of conduct that the widely used project has published online. While most code of conducts take an …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 13:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
There were more than ten. Got censored really early.
As it later turned out, all that guff about not killing people, not committing adultery and so on got ignored almost immediately, while the stuff about not eating prawns was rigorously enforced.
Proof if it were needed that sex is better than shellfish.
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Monday 22nd October 2018 21:02 GMT ThomH
Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
To quote the FAQ:
(6) Is SQLite threadsafe?
Threads are evil. Avoid them.
SQLite is threadsafe. We make this concession since many users choose to ignore the advice given in the previous paragraph.
After I've realised why it's evil not to throw away 75%+ of the processing power available to my application, I'll worry about the other strictures emanating from the SQLite team.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 06:15 GMT Christian Berger
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
"After I've realised why it's evil not to throw away 75%+ of the processing power available to my application,"
Well but for the typical usecase of SQLite threads bring more problems than they are worth. If you want to have software that can have it's database hammering with multiple processors on multiple harddisks you shouldn't use SQLite but some sort of "real" SQL-Server.
The whole idea behind SQLite is that you'll have the good things about SQL without having to have an extra server.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 07:59 GMT DaLo
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
" If you want to have software that can have it's database hammering with multiple processors on multiple harddisks ..."
Doesn't necessarily mean this. You may have high intensity procedures doing significant number crunching running on multiple threads which are just storing and retrieving small amounts of data from the SQLite database. The database isn't being hammered or particularly big but it still needs to be accessible and consistent across multiple threads.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 08:13 GMT Christian Berger
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
"The database isn't being hammered or particularly big but it still needs to be accessible and consistent across multiple threads."
So you just need one lock around the database functions. That's apparently what they have implemented.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 08:35 GMT Charlie Clark
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
The whole idea behind SQLite is that you'll have the good things about SQL without having to have an extra server.
I think your claims about SQL are a bit ambitious: it effectively grafts SQL onto a two-typed CSV storage designed for single user access.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 12:32 GMT ThomH
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
The FAQ doesn't attempt to scope its verdict on threads to SQLite; it does however state an advocacy position, contrary to the norm, citing only a single decade-old paper. Being persuasive is, at best, a fleeting consideration.
But on the whole implementation thing: after the hard stuff of statement parsing SQLite's underlying store is just sorted lists for binary search. So this feels like exactly what readers-writer locks are for: there's a simple, robust, well-documented, well-informed told, widely-implented solution. And then there's just proclaiming a deeply-held conviction.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 07:23 GMT Paul Crawford
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
To be fair here I have of agree with the "threads are evil" thing. Trying to debug code that lacks repeatability due to some thread interaction that is not deterministic (due to variable run-time timing, or due to an asynchronous event) is definitely the Devil's work. Yes, there are synchronisation primitives to (hopefully) work around it, but then you get in to the OS war zone.
Stick to multiple single-thread processes where possible...at least such a process can be expected to behave the same for the same inputs, and if not that alone is a bug.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 12:49 GMT Ian Michael Gumby
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
Actually, if you read the last line... it could explain why he chose this as the CoC:
"nor sleep with their colleagues' spouses."
That said, anyone who claims threads to be evil doesn't know how to use and manage threads.
It separates the men from the posers.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 16:34 GMT doublelayer
Re: Not the first piece of absurd preaching to come from the SQLite team
Threads are problematic because they can cause a lot of annoying race condition/concurrency problem things. That doesn't make them evil any more than the compiler is evil because it optimizes code into a method that makes it hard to debug, or the operating system is evil because it limits the number of open files you can have. They work in some way, and they each have a reason to do so.
Threads are useful over processes because your code is more united; you can create threads that are nicely connected to a codebase while multiprocessing is uglier. Threads let you have interactions between each other whereas processes don't have convenient communication mechanisms (sighup is not enough). To communicate between processes, you usually have to create your system yourself and it's slower.
As for SQLite, I typically use it only as a convenient type of data storage, or for an application that needs a local database inside itself. For real database requirements, it's not going to have enough features or capacity.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 07:51 GMT Christian Berger
"tell that to people murdered in crusades or by inquisition,"
That's like saying that being nice to each other is bad, just because there are SJWs out there who shitstorm everybody who doesn't fullfill their believes.
Any sort of belief can be used to aflict harm on people, particularly if it doesn't have any safeguards against that.
This set of rules starts with the idea that you can never fullfill them all, they are explicitly guidelines not strict rules. This makes them far more humane than any other CoC I've read so far as it accepts errors made with good intentions.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:02 GMT jmch
"they are explicitly guidelines not strict rules"
So more like the Pirate Code, then?
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 12:15 GMT Raedwald Bretwalda
Not so hasty, fellow atheist.
As TFA and the CoC itself says, those rules are taken from The Rule of St Benedict, which was (and stiil is) the Rule followed by Benedictine Monks (and those who would emulate them), not general rules for Christians. Naturally, Monks held themselves to stricter standards than general members of the population.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 14:20 GMT Jtom
Blaming the Crusades or the Inquisition on religion is short-sighted and inaccurate. At those times, the governments also controlled the religion. The Crusades were European governments warring against an invader who took land in the Middle East that they once held (by virtue of taking it from others). They used religion as an excuse, but it would have happened even if Caesar were still running things.
The Inquisition was the result of European governments taking back parts of Europe conquered by invading North Africans, the Moors. Again, it would have happened with or without religion.
There is only one religion that can be interpreted as calling for the takeover of all the Earth by whatever means necessary. You can say whatever you want about that philosophy, but for real death and destruction, you have to examine governments that had no religious underpinnings. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, alone, killed many times more people than all religions combined.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 18:03 GMT Daniel von Asmuth
Nobody expects the spanish inquisition!
" the governments also controlled the religion"
Actually, no. Many rulers of yore have controlled religions to increase their power, sometimes claiming divinity for themselves.
"There is only one religion that can be interpreted as calling for the takeover of all the Earth by whatever means necessary. "
Yes, that is the God of Moses, Abraham, Jesus & Mohammed. Popes were the only religious leaders to control governments, instead of the other way around.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 08:48 GMT jmch
The 'general behaviour' parts of the code are good, and are indeed taking just those would make an ace general-purpose code of conduct. (of course they can all be boiled down to 'be nice to others')
The overtly religious points verge between stupidly patronising to plain weird.
BUT the real disqualifiers for this list to be upheld as an exemplary code of conduct are:
54/55 - "Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter. / Do not love much or boisterous laughter." Come on, laughter is the best medicine and a sense of humour is extremely important.
63. "Love chastity." No. Just, no. (OK I understand it might be directed towards SQL nerds where it anyway does not apply.... but still, NO)
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:39 GMT eldakka
63. "Love chastity." No. Just, no. (OK I understand it might be directed towards SQL nerds where it anyway does not apply.... but still, NO)
So not so much a rule to follow, but a piece of advice given to help soften the blow of the inevitable consequences of becoming a (SQL) nerd?
I'll get my coat.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 11:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
"63. "Love chastity." No. Just, no. (OK I understand it might be directed towards SQL nerds where it anyway does not apply.... but still, NO)"
The whole point of SQL is to join things up and to make new things come out as a result. Inner join, outer join...the whole language is riddled with innuendo.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
"I mean it was tested for many centuries and it worked."
You should know how monastic orders could hate each other and work hard to damage the others and trying to make their own rich, very rich and poweful. For example, the Humiliates order, which adopted St. Benedict rule, became very rich with the production on wool fabrics, and, well, didn't really follow the rule... It was suppressed after they tried to kill the Archbishop of Milan - who was trying to put a stop to their abuses.
Their properties were given to other orders, including the one running the school I attended four centuries later (built in an old monastery) - they got it to run a school for the poor and the orphans.... just it became very quickly a school for the rich... usually founders words became just words soon after the founder was dead.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:06 GMT Nick Kew
Code of conduct in any online[1] community in our time:
- Nice idea. Or seems so.
- Nightmare in reality as it gets weaponised to enforce an Agenda, usually totalitarian.
Looks just like rather a lot of religious teachings.
I'm tempted to say Good On Him for calling out the nonsense, if it was indeed a reaction to (against) a modern form of repression.
BTW, we have a contrasting case of Larry Wall here. Some bits of God-bothering around Perl, but not so in-your-face as to be offensive or feel exclusive to a non-christian like me.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 12:49 GMT ibmalone
Code of conduct in any online[1] community in our time:
- Nice idea. Or seems so.
- Nightmare in reality as it gets weaponised to enforce an Agenda, usually totalitarian.
Earlier today I found myself typing out point 2. for an email list I frequent, then thought better of it. There is a great way to use a code of conduct and a bit of authority to shut down opposition. Simply ignore criticism until opponents get frustrated, then accuse anyone who lets exasperation creep into their tone of violating the code of conduct. The exact message I had thought of replying to contained approximately: "stop trying to silence people, I suggest you read the code of conduct", with a follow-up repeating the suggestion.
A code of conduct is useful, you need something to stop genuine abuse, but it needs to be implemented in an even-handed and constructive way.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:42 GMT eldakka
Re: I have a code of conduct
With respect, the only issue with your one liner is it's self-breaching. By telling other people not to do something you're telling them (trying to tell them) how to behave, which the line itself forbids...
That only applies if the OP tries to apply it to other people.
This appears to be the OPs personal code of conduct, not a code of conduct the OP is enforcing on others.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 05:23 GMT T. F. M. Reader
Re: I have a code of conduct
@Chris King: I think along the lines of "Use common sense and don't be a dick towards other people", but these days Equality & Diversity seems to need a manual and a mandatory training course before it is taken seriously.
And you'd fail the training course for you've used the word "dick" which is both offensive and sexist. Where is your common sense?
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:17 GMT Nick Kew
Re: I have a code of conduct
I think one or two commentards may be missing the point. It is my code of conduct, not one I try to impose on others.
Speaking as someone who immediately upvoted your code of conduct and also enjoyed the first response lightheartedly contradicting you, I don't think you have too much to worry about.
But it's true, subtlety and irony can be lost here. I've had two posts saying the same thing on the same thread in a Reg group, one attracted lots of downvotes, the other lots of upvotes. Commentards[1] are fickle, and you play with their expectations at your peril.
[1] And moderators, which is worse - though a lot rarer here.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:45 GMT eldakka
Re: I have a code of conduct
@Chris King: I think along the lines of "Use common sense and don't be a dick towards other people", but these days Equality & Diversity seems to need a manual and a mandatory training course before it is taken seriously.
And you'd fail the training course for you've used the word "dick" which is both offensive and sexist. Where is your common sense?
Maybe could use the word asshole, or the medically correct version of that word, rectum. That is not sexist since everyone has one, and using rectum, at least, isn't offensive unless one tries to find offence in a technical term. In which case, fuck em.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I have a code of conduct
using rectum, at least, isn't offensive
I'd consider it highly offensive to use any rectum other than one's own. Or indeed to use my own for any purpose other than disposing waste from the body. So please keep it out of your CoC.
Damn, I expect that's offensive to someone.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 13:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I have a code of conduct
"And you'd fail the training course for you've used the word "dick" which is both offensive and sexist. Where is your common sense?"
this has literally never happened. people dont use the word "dick" because they're worried it's offensive or sexist (debatable on both counts). people dont use it because its not suitable business language. you dont need to invoke your fears of political correctness for something that's inappropriate whatever your political/religious/personal leanings.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:24 GMT pɹÉÊoÉ snoɯÊuouÉ
Re: I have a code of conduct
" I think along the lines of "Use common sense and don't be a dick towards other people", but these days Equality & Diversity seems to need a manual and a mandatory training course before it is taken seriously. "
Equality & Diversity is almost impossible to take serious any more when the people who decide what breaches Equality & Diversity are special snowflakes of the highest order who get people sacked for saying that women do not have a penis....
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Monday 22nd October 2018 23:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I have a code of conduct
Whoever came up with these principles appears not to have heard of a fundamental notion for getting along with people of different persuasions, which is that in polite society you should never discuss religion and politics. I would have no greater desire to be part of a coding project that insists on commitment to Judeo-Christian traditions than Muslim/Hindu/Atheist/Communist/...
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:39 GMT Teiwaz
Re: I have a code of conduct
Whoever came up with these principles appears not to have heard of a fundamental notion
Seems to have a firm grasp of Fundamentalist Notions though.
Not to mention a firm grip on the knout, along with mortification of the flesh and hair shirts, shortly to follow in the second version of the code of conduct.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 16:40 GMT JohnFen
Re: I have a code of conduct
"which is that in polite society you should never discuss religion and politics"
Also, at most of the places I've worked, there has been an explicit prohibition against discussing religion or politics while on company time. This code of conduct would itself be a violation of many companies' codes of conduct.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 08:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I have a code of conduct
“This rule applies to SQLite developers, not to users of the SQLite code. Everyone is free to use the SQLite source code, object code, and/or documentation regardless of their opinion of and adherence to this rule. SQLite has been and continues to be completely free to everyone, without precondition.”
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:17 GMT Doctor Syntax
Re: I have a code of conduct
Here's my suggestion:
1. This is a technical group dedicated to $name
2. We value members on their technical ability and technical contributions to $name
3. All other aspects of members' lives including but not limited to ethnicity; nationality; age; gender, biological or otherwise; sexual orientation and general life experiences are orthogonal to technical matters and hence of no concern to the group and so we neither value nor devalue members on such bases.
4. Members' opinions of such orthogonal matters and members opinions of other members' opinions to any level of recursion are likewise orthogonal to technical issues relating to $name and hence of no concern to the group and we neither value nor devalue members on such bases.
5. We acknowledge that some members whose technical contributions to $name we value may not be comfortable with discussions of such orthogonal matters. In deference to their feelings, therefore, we choose not to discuss them in the group nor outside the group in relation to group members.
6. We acknowledge that some people are unable to avoid discussing such orthogonal matters. This is not a suitable group for such people irrespective of any technical contributions they may be able to make to $name. They have our sympathy but not our empathy and we wish them well in their search for a group they may find more congenial.
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Monday 22nd October 2018 21:56 GMT SVV
This is serious code bloat
There are 72 commandments, which is a massive increase in size compared to the original specification, hardly appropriate for a "Lite" implementation. They could maybe have just reduced it to adding on the 11th, "Chastise the body", as this is a popular pastime in certain sectors of the open source world I hear, and would reduce the desire to break the others were the disciples to obey it religiously.
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Monday 22nd October 2018 22:24 GMT Snow Wombat
It's a better CoC than the Rainbow hairs can produce.
Well This CoC would lead to a lot more productivity, and good behaviour than the one the Rainbow Hair'ed NPCs keep pushing on every other project.
You'd spend more time coding, and being nice to each other, and less time in flame wars about pronouns and which of the 7 million genders is the most oppressed.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 03:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Cool, so no atheistic material in your workplace then?
My business, my rules. If I want my faith to be part of my business that's not your decision, you're free to go elsewhere or make your own.
Reading further into this (ie RTFA), no one complained and the other people involved in the project were happy with the CoC.
So, their business, their rules.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 02:51 GMT Tim99
Having said that
From experience, SQLite is excellent. I suspect it's good for 80% of websites that use (Oracle) MySQL: Appropriate Uses For SQLite.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:23 GMT toxicdragon
Re: James Hollingshead
"I cannot do that it is against my religion" Is perfectly fine however, what is happening here is "YOU cannot do that it is against my religion" and that is so far from fine God himself would need a telescope to see it. There is nothing wrong with religion in principle, just the incredibly shitty stuff done in its name. And yes I am aware of all the other shitty stuff done in other things names. Doesnt make then any less deplorable too.
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Thursday 25th October 2018 11:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: James Hollingshead
As above, if I own the place I make the rules. From the article the whole team was on board (or at least not against it).
But.. Your post still doesn't answer why Mr Hollingshead believes his very existence is hated by the SQlite people.
FTR, I have the view that if it isn't actually hurting someone it's OK and probably none of my business. however when I conduct my business on my premisis then I'll do it my way.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 13:03 GMT onefang
Re: Welcome to 21st Century.
"I think the best we can hope for is just less plastic."
A recent study found that most brands of salt sold in supermarkets have a lot of micro plastics in them. I suspect we'll all be eating more plastic, not less. I'm screwed, I've had two doctors recommend I eat more salt.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 12:58 GMT tiggity
Re: Welcome to 21st Century.
I could sea that salt from the sea could have microplastics due to lots in seawater.
However ancient salt, such as that mined in Cheshire predates plastic pollution so, unless something odd in the purifying & packaging process, would not expect plastic in "ancient" salt.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Gets you into trouble very easily. If I posted here a bit of typical banter from within my family it would look so offensive as to be moderated away.
Nietzsche had it right. Life would be hell if we treated others as we treat ourselves. Just think of some trivial mistake you beat yourself up about at length, but would shrug off without a second thought if someone else perpetrated it.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Was the "agreement" active affirmation or inferred from a lack of dissent?
If it was the latter, the option always exists that those keeping quiet were sufficiently fearful of the management that they decided staying silent was best for their position, even if they disagreed with the policy.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 05:54 GMT EveryTime
It seemed very strange initially, but it made increasing sense as I read the story.
I do completely agree with not changing or simplifying the original text. One of the ten commandments was originally a prohibition against taking or owning slaves. It was translated differently because powerful people wanted to own slaves, and wanted their religion to support that. "Thou shall not steal" is a much different concept than "Thou shall not a steal a person as the spoils of war".
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 06:41 GMT Christian Berger
Does it even define what it means by "God"?
I mean apparently one of the main issues people have is that they think "God" means the wrong thing to them, notably the Judaic god.
However instead you could just as well interpret it as whatever you derive your desire to act in a "good" way from. The rest of the rules essentially make sure your idea of "good" is compatible with having some sensible working relationships. Probably as an attempt to keep sociopaths out.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Does it even define what it means by "God"?
This. For many people without religion it is hard to see what all the fuss is about, it looks like a set of good morals. The problems come when people think there should be only one religious club. To be honest, SQLite probably does better without those types of people, either SJW or noisy religious bandwagon occupants.
Few people are able to be silent members of a religious club, this extends from church to sports ball. "Our club is best, we will beat all other clubs" is a sad mentality.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:42 GMT Nick Kew
Re: Does it even define what it means by "God"?
Yeah, but calling God by the wrong name is the worst crime of all.
Hence Elijah's slaughter of all the followers of Baal. Somehow the bible translators failed to translate the word Baal, so it looks like a proper name. And thus the genocide becomes a work of The Lord, who is somehow not merely a translation of The Lord.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 06:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Their project, their rules.
SQLite is, and always has, been open-source, but not open-contribution. The main authors offer it free for all to use and have said explicitly that people can use the code without subscribing to any of their rules. The authors aren't forcing any beliefs on those outside the project, so it would be hypocritical for us to try to force ours on them.
Anyone complaining about "but it marginalizes potential contributors" needs to re-read the above. YOU CAN'T CONTRIBUTE and NEVER COULD.
I'm an atheist but I still can recognize clever satire and social commentary when I see it; extreme political correctness appears to preclude having a sense of humour.
A parting note: anyone who now feels they can't stomache using SQLite in their projects had better consider ceasing their use of all modern medicine and technology, because, remember, a lot of it was literally pioneered by Nazis and other racists, and is a product of horrible wars. Yes, seriously (skin grafting, organ transplants, satellites and rockets).
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 08:12 GMT Spazturtle
It's rather disgusting that people are attacking this CoC, they are essentially saying that anyone who things differently to them is wrong and should be exiled for heresy. They want projects to adopt a CoC but only their one. It's his clubhouse, all the members of his club agreed with the rules, so if you are not a member then you have no right to complain.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Christian values straight from the source
Here are some nice versus. Sure, some are from the old testament which the christians claim has been superseded. Seems the god that created everything, is so wise etc suddenly had a change of heart. Like following a psychopath who sings two different tunes.
Slavery seems ok: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)
Sex slavery is ok too: "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again." (Exodus 21: 7-8)
So much for equal treatment of woman: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
Seems ok to go kill woman and children: "Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” (1 Samuel 15:3)
More killing: “Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:9)
And numerous other 'christian values' passages. Think I'll pass. Rather be a better human thanks.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 15:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Christian values straight from the source
You are entirely entitled to your view on the matter, but I disagree. What Christian values means to me is summed up in just two passages:
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)
And:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
As these are the words of Jesus himself I, personally, believe that they take precedence over anything else in the Bible.
Then again I'm also odd for Christian in that I believe the Bible itself is fundamentally flawed for having been written by humans, so rejecting obviously wrong passages presents no theological problem for me. To my mind Christ himself taught complete compassion and mercy and the extraordinary value of all human beings, so the Bible writers who exhibit anything else - including all of the passages you mentioned - must be mistaken.
And yes, I am completely aware of how contradictory it is to belong to a religion while rejecting the infallibility of its holy text. That's what comes of not being willing (or, really, able) to completely give up the religion and associated beliefs that are the foundation of a great many aspects of my life while still having enough analytical thought to realize that there is quite a lot in the Bible that doesn't line up with the core teachings of Christ.
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Thursday 25th October 2018 11:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Christian values straight from the source
The most critical part is the part you have right - the relationship with Jesus. It is said "Seek first the Kingdom of God", which you are doing.
1 John 1:9 says if you confess your sins to God then He will forgive you. There's no conditions on that, no limits, therefore no worries.
When you love someone you seek to please them, even if you make mistakes in the process. Your post indicates you love Jesus and seek to do what He likes. He'll always respect that even when you get it wrong!
I personally don't believe the original texts were wrong, however there is stuff that is lost in translation and some of the translations have certainly been mis-handled by flawed humans.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:01 GMT thinking ape
Christian values from the source
Here are some nice versus. Sure, some are from the old testament which the christians claim has been superseded. Seems the god that created everything, is so wise etc suddenly had a change of heart. Like following a psychopath who sings two different tunes.
Slavery seems ok: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)
Sex slavery is ok too: "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again." (Exodus 21: 7-8)
So much for equal treatment of woman: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
Seems ok to go kill woman and children: "Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” (1 Samuel 15:3)
More killing: “Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:9)
And numerous other 'christian values' passages. Think I'll pass. Rather be a better human thanks.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:41 GMT Destroy All Monsters
It's 2018. Christian values are yesterday
The only code of code acceptable must include "depravity is all-ok, you must try it", "respect the victim totem pole hierarchy", "the LGBTXYZ clique is a protected species and must not be disturbed in its native habitat", "globalization must be supported even if it kills you", "believe women", "islam is the true feminism", "gibmedats for everyone, free, and no-one shall be offended".
Enjoy the final days of Rome.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:43 GMT Paul Smith
Bedroom rules
What goes on in your bedroom between consenting adults is your business, no matter how distasteful others may find it. And as a self-professed liberal, I have a moral obligation to defend your right to continuing doing what ever it is you want, but that doesn't mean I can't ask you to keep the fcuking noise down. These guys have a closed shop development group so if they want to indulge in superstitious rituals, it makes no difference to me whether they use agile scrum, group hugs or Benedictine Christianity, as long as they keep the doors closed.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 09:50 GMT cat_mara
Joking aside, I thought that code-of-conduct post was... unworthy of drh. He is responsible for so much good software — not just SQLite, but Fossil (which I secretly prefer to git but, shh, don't tell anyone) and its ancestor cvstrac which I still use on some old personal project, among many others — which he has released under very generous licencing conditions. It comes across as smug and dismissive like, you know, that Pharisee in the parable praying ostentatiously in the synagogue, "cheers, God, for not making me like the rest of these losers!"
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:09 GMT John Savard
Not Open Contribution
If SQLite is written by a group of friends who are not seeking other developers to share their load, then indeed one can't complain that what has happened violates other people's rights. Also, the article did note that they're willing to make exceptions for people who feel uncomfortable with parts of the code of conduct.
None the less, I think it's entirely legitimate to react to this as a joke in extremely poor taste.
If one removes the rules in that list that are explicitly religious in nature, or which are appropriate to members of a monastic order, there would not be all that much left.
However, that being said, I would have no objection to a Benedictine monastery releasing open-source software. The shock is largely at unexpectedly finding something that one would have expected to be a secular institution adopting non-pluralistic values.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 10:50 GMT MacroRodent
No laughter?
The God bits don't bother me, but why should there be for example
54. Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter.
Also the
17. Bury the dead.
is not so relevant in today's society, where bodies are handled by specialists. I guess this was not the case in St Benedict's day, so he exhorted monks to take care of stray bodies in the gutter.
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Thursday 1st November 2018 12:10 GMT CRConrad
Bury the dead
MacroRodent wrote: “...so he exhorted monks to take care of stray bodies in the gutter.”
Possibly that, too, but I'd guess primarily to take care of stray _souls_ in the gutter:
I think Benedict — a monk, writing for monks — may have meant that mostly for the (implicit) “bury the dead _with the proper rituals”._ Like, give even a poor bastard who died alone, or without anyone who could afford to give him a nice burial, the required sending-off with prayers etc so as to give him the best possible shot at getting to the place upstairs instead of the one downstairs. For churchy folk — at least for folks as churchy as Benedict and the monks he wrote for, and especially at that time — that is the main part of a burial, I think, far ahead of any hygiene concerns like cleaning up the gutters. So, basically AFAICS an exhortation to do a last — but very important — charitable act for the least among us. Quite sympathetic, better than I'd have expected.
(All this just a WAG, haven't studied this at all, but feels like it stands to reason.)
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 11:13 GMT David Roberts
Clothe the naked.
Well, yes, I do that nearly every day.
The exclusions are rare and probably obvious, but a nerdish need to try and be accurate forces me to qualify that statement.
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On the subject of Christianity (or not) I thought the New Testament was a replacement for the Old Testament and so the term "Old Testament Christian" was logically incorrect. Still, you look for the words which support your chosen views, I assume.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 15:54 GMT sisk
Re: Clothe the naked.
On the subject of Christianity (or not) I thought the New Testament was a replacement for the Old Testament and so the term "Old Testament Christian" was logically incorrect. Still, you look for the words which support your chosen views, I assume.
It depends on the specific flavor of Christianity you're referencing. For example, Seventh Day Adventists are very much "Old Testament Christian," to the point that some bits of the New Testament get either ignored entirely or interpreted in such a way as to reinforce the Old Testament doctrine that they would replace in the doctrine of other denominations. As an example, the theme throughout Paul's letters of Mosiac law not applying to Christians is completely ignored in SDA doctrine, while the bit in Acts that most Christians interpret as meaning there are no "unclean" meats anymore is interpreted somewhat differently (I forget the exact details on that one).
When speaking of Christianity it's important to remember that it's an incredibly fragmented community. Folks around here talk about Android being fragmented, but by comparison to Christianity it's pretty consistent. There's very little that you could say about Christian doctrine beyond the core concept of salvation through Christ that would apply to all Christian denominations.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 13:09 GMT ibmalone
"But that would put me in the position of editing and redacting Benedict of Nursia, as if I were wiser than he."
Always good to recognise your limitations.
Also, are the people reacting to a code of conduct ("which has included a wave of aggressive responses accusing Hipp of un-Christian behavior") with abuse really that blind to irony?
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 14:00 GMT bussdriver
Even serious, it still is a joke
CoC being set to something that offends many is great irony. Doesn't have to be intentional to be a joke.
It's all BS just to excuse actions against somebody later on like policies and procedures. They are used those in power against whomever and the masses are more likely to blow it off if it is done referring to some static document nobody memorizes or reviews... unless it upsets too many and then a policy debate ensues but still results in less harm than just saying, "I am banning X because I hate them and I'm in charge, not you." It's a political trick we all fall for too often.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 15:11 GMT sisk
To be perfectly fair, the world would be a much better place if everyone followed the bits of the Christian tenants of behavior that don't actually require being Christian. Heck, even just the universal adoption of the golden rule (which actually exists in most religions in some form, probably because it's so freaking obvious) would make the world a far better place. And I really don't think that's such a big ask for an online community made up of adults. Though, perhaps he should have made it a bit more clear that he was copy-pasting a religious text and that the more spiritual or worshippy bits of it could be ignored.
And before anyone goes off on me about how awful Christians can be, it should be mentioned that of the several hundred "Christians" I know only a handful actually live up to that standard of behavior. Most Christians just....don't. The ones who do are extraordinarily pleasant people.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 19:29 GMT sisk
Re: Sigh...
Do NOT do unto others that which you would NOT want done unto you.
Steer clear of the oversimplified translations, dudes.
Actually it is stated both as (paraphrasing because I don't want to look up verses for exact text right now) "Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself" - at least once and maybe twice in the Old Testament law - and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - in Matthew during the Sermon on the Mount. Both kinda amount to the same thing really. And, as I said, there is some variant on the same theme in most religions. Have a look at the Wikipedia page for "The Golden Rule" sometime to see it stated several other ways in the texts of several other religions.
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Tuesday 23rd October 2018 17:16 GMT fraunthall
Some folks are worthy of exclusion because they are flaming idiots, so the new SQLite (is that supposed to mean SQL Lite or Light?) CofC seems to have outed them. For that we should all be grateful. I read the full code. There is nothing offensive in it, and the rules, although difficult to adhere to, are all reasonable. Opposition to them is only revelatory of the extreme ill-liberal biases of the critics.
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Saturday 27th October 2018 17:33 GMT Allan George Dyer
@Mycho - If you're interested in the matching set of obsidian carvings (I used to think they were, somehow, disturbing, but now they seem quite friendly, almost like they are beckoning), and the black, leather-bound book I found in the ruined library, I'm taking them to the clearing in the old forest tonight. Meet me there.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 16:17 GMT EnviableOne
CoC is a PITA
Codes are a right PITA
SQLlite is too Religious, CC is to SJW, Linux is too short (Be excelent to each other)
I'd go with a modified version of Matthew 22 37 and 39
You Shall value stability and security of $project with all your heart soul and mind
You Shall do nothing to others you wouldn't want them to do to you.
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Wednesday 24th October 2018 16:44 GMT heyrick
Never mind all this God stuff
I object to the "Be not drowsy".
What exactly are you supposed to be after pulling an all nighter because a project "nearing completion" is going to be demonstrated to clients tomorrow and the twatty management bod only bothers to mention this in passing as he's putting on his coat at the end of the day.
Other words come to mind - livid and homicidal for instance - but I'd settle for status equals drowsy and a gallon of tea and a pack of Garibaldi...
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Friday 26th October 2018 21:29 GMT ROC
CoC Updated
Maybe the CoC was updated since most of the foregoing discussion here the past 2-3 days, but it is now based on the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines , and the original is identified as "more of a Code of Ethics of the Project Founder" - i.e. personal value system, and pretty much moot for this discussion:
https://www.sqlite.org/codeofconduct.html
They do have this "request" at the end of the "About" web page:
"We the developers hope that you find SQLite useful and we entreat you to use it well: to make good and beautiful products that are fast, reliable, and simple to use. Seek forgiveness for yourself as you forgive others. And just as you have received SQLite for free, so also freely give, paying the debt forward."
Note the use of the verb "entreat", which Merriam Webster defines in the primary explanation as "to plead with especially in order to persuade".
They ask "pretty please", and that's about it.
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Sunday 28th October 2018 10:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Chauver's Monk
"The reule of Seint Maure, or of Seint Beneit,
By cause that it was old and somdel streit
This ilke Monk leet olde thynges pace,
And heeld after the newe world the space."
Because the rule of St. Maure and St. Benedict was rather narrow, this same monk allowed these old things to lapse and adopted the modern world.
If the Rule of St Benedict was considered to be out of date in the 14th century by an English civil servant, how out of date is it now?