common_schema 2.0.0-alpha: rdebug, GPL

A new release for common_schema: an alpha version of rdebug: MySQL Debugger and Debugging API is now included with common_schema.

With a different license in mind for rdebug, common_schema changes license to GPL (2 or above).

common_schema 2.0 is ready for download. All things rdebug, it is alpha — otherwise it’s a stable release.

rdebug

I’m very happy to release this alpha version of rdebug, and urge everyone to try it out.

The idea is to have an open, free, server side debugger and debugging API for MySQL stored routines. To elaborate:

• It’s server side by that it’s implemented by stored routines. Not by a connector; not an emulator; not a GUI tool hack. The entire functionality lies within common_schema, a schema in your server.
• It’s a debugger: you can debug your own stored routines (with limitations)
• It’s a debugging API: there’s a distinct specification and a set of calls which makes for a debugging process
• It’s open since the source code is yours to browse.
• It’s free as in free beer.
• It’s free as it makes you independent of a specific debugger. It provides an API that anyone can use. You can run the API yourself from the command line; or plugins for your favorite GUI editor can be developed to use this API.

On a separate blog post I will take you to a rdebug test drive.

As always, nothing is released before extensive documentation is in place.

I’d love to get input on this.

GPL

common_schema < 2.0 was released under the BSD license, which is less restrictive. I was pondering the BSD license for a couple years now, and with the arrival of rdebug have decided to switch to GPL. I’ve been through this thinking of change of license in other projects of mine; am generally agreeing that best not to change licensing throughout lifetime. I actually do see GPL as promoting open source software better than BSD, and with all the issues around GPL this actually means something to me. I write open source; I love people using it; I love people extending it; I want to be re-released as open source, or I want better control of the code.

So this turns out to be something that is important to me, and just before common_schema takes the world in storm (212 downloads today, 212,000,000 tomorrow), I want to have this settled. If no storm comes, well, I’ll have up to 212 people banging on my door (I provide free coffee).

Text routines

Two text routines are added:

• replace_sections(): replace a text given a from-to combination, and a replacement string, which could include a back-reference. For example:

mysql> select replace_sections('The <b>quick</b> brown <b>fox</b>', 
        '<b>', '</b>', 
        '<span>\\0</span>') as result;
+-----------------------------------------------+
| result                                        |
+-----------------------------------------------+
| The <span>quick</span> brown <span>fox</span> |
+-----------------------------------------------+

• hexcode_text(): a convenience routine which shows a beautified hex-code of a given text. I get to need it when using UNICODE characters which are hard to detect, are visually identical to other characters, or are copied from MS Word.

mysql> call hexcode_text('the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog');
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| >0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 74 68 65 20 71 75 69 63 6B 20 62 72 6F 77 6E 20   t h e   q u i c k   b r o w n   |
| 66 6F 78 20 6A 75 6D 70 73 20 6F 76 65 72 20 74   f o x   j u m p s   o v e r   t |
| 68 65 20 6C 61 7A 79 20 64 6F 67                  h e   l a z y   d o g           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Get it

Download common_schema here.