Open-source database SQLite has told its developers it expects them to follow Christ, love chastity, clothe the naked, and not murder, steal, nor sleep with their colleagues’ spouses.
That’s the upshot of a somewhat untypical code of conduct that the widely used project has published online. While most code of conducts take an irreligious approach, urging people to be respectful of others’ views and treat everyone nice, SQLite has instead gone for rules drawn up by St Benedict more than 1,500 years ago.
The code of conduct has drawn significant attention, complete with the inevitable Twitter wave of rage and condemnation.Many assumed the document is an internal joke, albeit an odd one, in part thanks to the preface noting it was created because SQLite has been “encouraged by clients to adopt a written code of conduct.” Not so.
Hipp told us the clients that urged a code of conduct be created to govern community interactions “seemed to not care what the CoC was, as long as it was written down.” But he defends the “Christian values” that the document represents and points out that SQLite source code has a “blessing” at the top of each file in place of a license and includes the Jesus-inspired phrase: “Find forgiveness for yourself while forgiving others.”
In the face of today’s attention, which has included a wave of aggressive responses accusing Hipp of un-Christian behavior – he tells us he updated the preface to highlight the fact that by adopting St Benedict’s rules he was not seeking to exclude anyone.
“Nobody is excluded from the SQLite community due to biological category or religious creed,” he told us. “The preface to the CoC should make this clear. The only way to get kicked out of the SQLite community is by shouting, flaming, and disrespectful behavior. In 18 years, only one person has ever been banned from the mailing list.”
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/22/sqlite_code_of_conduct/
Submitted by: Arnfried Walbrecht
Comments are closed.