By "peculiarities" I didn't mean minor implementation differences but the major ideas behind the implementation. Be reasonable here -- the differences in implementation in the DOM between Gecko and WebKit (say) are trivial compared to "type checking" vs "lack of type checking". There's a bit of subjectivity involved, agreed, but I think any reasonable person would agree about the differences.

There are indeed differences. Much greater with SQLite vs (most) other SQL engines.

I still see it as killing something out of some ulterior motive rather than supporting something highly effective. SQLite exists because it has survived against many competitors for a long time. It's not like this is some new, untested thing that cropped up out of nowhere.

edit: just realized there's a much stronger argument here. And a bigger threat.

By not supporting WebDatabase, because the implementers all used SQLite, they've essentially guaranteed that they will never support an SQL-based database. Few are going to want to compete with SQLite on its own turf as an embedded database when it's already so optimized. Especially if they all have to agree on a spec similar to SQLite.

SQLite isn't even all that poor of a match for a JS-interfaced database. JS is nearly as fast and loose with its types as SQLite, and the types that do exist are very close to what JS has.

You still haven't answered what you're going to do if the current SQLite code simply can't run on a particular OS stack. There's no guarantee that every future stack will have a C compiler, or even allow C programs.

All that matters is the behavior, which SQLite has very well defined because it's a bit wonky out of maintaining backwards compatibility. Even the fundamental algorithms will still translate, so all that's needed is to compile it or something logically similar for the system with whatever compiler it allows. Heck, it'd probably be easier than implementing off an abstract spec, especially when you consider most of the optimizations will still translate but do not need to be discovered.

If such a system exists, it won't be able to run the vast majority of stuff out there. Re-implementing SQLite will be the least of its concerns.