RethinkDB: here to stay or on the way out

2016-10-07 23:23  RethinkDB-in-or-out      [permalink]

I'm worried and confused.  The news these days is that RethinkDB is shutting down, at least the company.  The database itself may live on.  I had been attempting to write a really-thin Delphi wrapper for RethinkDB a number of times before, but got diverted into writing DelphiProtocolBuffer first, because it was used for the base of the server protocol and I couldn't find the Delphi support I was looking for (I'm sorry, but I'm a bit picky). Later it looked like they were planning on dropping this in favor of something else, but I wasn't able to investigate further at that time. In the mean time, I did a CouchDB, PostgreSQL and a MariaDB/MySQL wrapper, and a neat way to tie them together, and kept TMongoWire working, which turns out to be the one in the series of DB connectors that has the most success to date. (And which envolved learning all about PBKDF2...)

So now I'm confused about wether to keep RethinkDB on my to-do list? Or drop it? Or move it up to have a look sooner... Just like MongoDB, it may be that I won't really have a full-grown project anytime soon that is based on RethinkDB, but demand for a thin Delphi wrapper is out there and makes it worth it, I don't know. (Please let me know.)

And I'm worried about this new tale of an open-source-but-also-corporate endeavour going sour. It's only natural that when the projected sales don't appear to manifest, a project is best to get ended cleanly (as I recently witnessed over at the day-job). So I'm rooting for the open-source project to find a good new home. That the eco-system of volunteers may survive the orphanization. That the real-world users may carry enough weight to force the project into a viable after-life.

It's important to have a good climate to have entrepreneurs get enticed to take the step and start a company, but with this series of high-profile undertakings going bust, and aqui-hires where users get left in the dark, it starting to look like it's running out of control. Some people may called it a bubble, but I find the image of a pendulum swinging more appropriate. Is it swinging back already? I'm in no position to tell accurately. But I am worried.

For the record, I have had no economic gain from my open-source undertakings what-so-ever (up till now?) though OpenHub estimates about half a million went into xxm up till now. Not bad for a hobby...
But about RethinkDB, I guess I'll have to wait a little until the dust settles down...

Update 2017-02-06: RethinkDB's assets have been bought from RethinkDB Inc. By something something Linux Foundation, and a re-license to the Apache Public License. Sky is clearing up.

Update 2017-03-06: I've given it another try, and partly because there's a downloadable Windows executable that works, I've got something working. TRethinkDB appears to be able to perform all the basic functions you could require from a driver, but may need some more testing.

→