This isn't SQL-specific, but this is 100% the problem for me. There's such a big culture gap between the way that we do things in most of the tech world and ISO, and one of the biggest clashes is this weird $180 PDF thing.
If I want to implement a new standards-compliant HTML parser, I can hop right onto whatwg.org and view the complete standard instantly [0]. It's massive and complicated, but it's freely accessible to anyone interested.
In contrast, if I want to implement an ISO 8601-compliant date parser, ISO wants me to buy their PDF for CHF166 (~$180 USD). This spec is for a standard that is orders of magnitude less complex, and they're charging through the nose for it.
I'm unclear what makes the difference between a standard that can be maintained by a community for the benefit of everyone and a standard that needs to be locked behind a paywall.
A pay-walled standard is not available, and an unavailable standard is not a standard at all.
The only real way of fixing it is for enough people to ignore ISO so they become irrelevant.
If you are building a new DB engine (toy or not), don't use SQL. Either design a new spec or use something that's more openly specified (maybe GraphQL or EdgeQL).
This isn't SQL-specific, but this is 100% the problem for me. There's such a big culture gap between the way that we do things in most of the tech world and ISO, and one of the biggest clashes is this weird $180 PDF thing.
If I want to implement a new standards-compliant HTML parser, I can hop right onto whatwg.org and view the complete standard instantly [0]. It's massive and complicated, but it's freely accessible to anyone interested.
In contrast, if I want to implement an ISO 8601-compliant date parser, ISO wants me to buy their PDF for CHF166 (~$180 USD). This spec is for a standard that is orders of magnitude less complex, and they're charging through the nose for it.
I'm unclear what makes the difference between a standard that can be maintained by a community for the benefit of everyone and a standard that needs to be locked behind a paywall.
[0] https://html.spec.whatwg.org/