Subject: Re: bug#60490: 29.0.60; sqlite-mode-open-file fails to work over tramp

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2023 09:27:21 +0200

> Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2023 11:11:49 +0530
> From: Mohammed Sadiq <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked]
> 
> On 2023-01-02 18:13, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > severity 60490 wishlist
> > thanks
> > 
> >> Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2023 16:56:24 +0530
> >> From: Mohammed Sadiq <[email-masked]>
> >> 
> >> Opening sqlite db files from remote system over tramp (with M-x
> >> sqlite-mode-open-file) fails with the following error in *Messages*:
> >> 
> >> sqlite-mode-list-tables: Wrong type argument: sqlitep, nil
> > 
> > The built-in SQLite support doesn't (yet) support remote DB access.
> > So I'm converting this report to a feature request.  Patches welcome.
> > 
> 
> In that case, it would be better to show a warning message that
> it's not supported instead of failing with errors that gives no
> hint to the user.

I disagree that we should show a warning in such cases.  The user
asked Emacs to do something, and Emacs couldn't; the appropriate
response is to signal an error, not to show a warning.  Showing a
warning would mean we don't abort whatever Lisp program that was
trying to do something we cannot do.

I agree that a more targeted error message would be beneficial;
patches for that are welcome as well.

> Also, Emacs may also show the related bug number regarding such
> issues so that interested users can subscribe to know updates.

We don't have any infrastructure in Emacs for doing stuff like that.
It would be a useful feature, I think (although not easy to
implement), but please submit a separate feature request for it.