Database access for Guile

[Jim Blandy <jimb@red-bean.com>]

I think (db ...) is fine --- abbreviations in general are confusing,
but I don't think that one is.  I think the problem of supporting
SQL-like databases pretty different from supporting simple things like
Berkeley DB, GDBM, and so on.  So let's keep those distinct.  But I
think it would be dumb for Maciej and I to try to decide much more
than that.

So, limiting ourselves to the SQL-like databases, could someone
volunteer to get together a group of the people who know something
about databases?  I'd like those folks to:

- come up with a proposal for namespace structure within (db ...),
- design our complement to Perl's DBI interface, and
- provide a sample implementation for at least one database, based on
  one of the existing sql interfaces.

I don't care if you have the discussion on this list, or elsewhere,
but please subscribe me if you create a new list.

Requirements:

- We need a uniform interface, with ideas stolen from Perl's DBI.
- We need to be able to easily talk to multiple databases, from
  different vendors, at one time.

Beyond that, do what makes sense.  :)