Documentation Source Text

documents (ODT and ODP) are also ZIP archives containing XML and
images that represent their content as well as "catalog" files that
show the interrelationships between the component parts.

<p>A wrapped pile-of-files format is a compromise between a full
custom file format and a pure pile-of-files format.
A wrapped pile-of-files format is not an opaque blob in the same sense
as a custom file format, since the component parts can still be accessed
as a custom format, since the component parts can still be accessed
using any common ZIP archiver, but the format is not quite as accessible
as a pure pile-of-files format because one does still need the ZIP 
archiver, and one cannot normally use command-line tools like "find"
on the file hierarchy without first un-zipping it.  On the other
hand, a wrapped pile-of-files format does preserve the document
metaphor by putting all content into a single disk file.  And
because it is compressed, the wrapped pile-of-files format tends to
be more compact.

<p>As with custom file formats, and unlike pure pile-of-file formats,
a wrapped pile-of-files format is not as easy to edit, since
one most normally rewrite the entire file to change any
usually the entire file must be rewritten in order to change any
component part.
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<p>The purpose of this document is to argue in favor of a fourth
new catagory of application file format: An SQLite database file.

<h2>SQLite As The Application File Format</h2>

of being able to update individual "files" without rewrite
the entire document.

<p>
But an SQLite database is not limited to a simple key/value structure
like a pile-of-files database.  An SQLite database can have dozens
or hundreds or thousands of different of tables, with dozens or
hundreds or thousands of fields per table, each with different datatypes and
hundreds or thousands of fields per table, each with different datatypes
and constraints and particular meanings, all cross-referencing each other,
appropriately and automatically indexed for rapid retrieval,
and all stored efficiently and compactly in a single disk file.
And all of this structure is succinctly documented for humans
by the SQL schema.

<p>In other words, an SQLite database can do everything that a 

information they need from a document.  Developers write SQL that
expresses "what" information they want and let the database engine
to figure out how to best retrieve that content.  This helps developers
operate "heads up" and remain focused on solving the user's problem,
and avoid time spent "heads down" fiddling with low-level file
formatting details.

<p>A pile-of-files format can viewed as a key/value database.  
<p>A pile-of-files format can be viewed as a key/value database.  
A key/value database is better than no database at all.
But without transactions or indices or a high-level query language or
a proper schema,
it much harder and more error prone to use a key/value database than
a relational database.

<li><p><b>Accessible Content.</b>