Improved Getting Started From Scratch Instructions

[mredig]

I really like using Lighter and how minimal of a dependency it is, but I haven't had much of a chance to use it and whenever I do, I always struggle to set it up since I never have a situation that follows the golden path that appears to be taking an existing sqlite file and using that as a starting point.

I almost always am starting from scratch where I need to define a schema and objects that will CREATE the db, but following docs for that is sparse and confusing.

I think it would help far many more people than myself to have something that provides for this approach with a bit more hand holding.

[helje5]

Lighter does not need an actual DB, it can also bootstrap from a .sql file that creates the schema.
The Solar Bodies example is demonstrating that: https://github.com/Lighter-swift/Examples/tree/develop/Sources/Bodies

But I guess yes, a step-by-step tutorial on how to build e.g. Solar Bodies might be nice.

[mredig]

That example makes a huge leap from "create a sql file" to "bootstrap the database" - there's no explanation for how the type is generated in between.

The process basically boils down to

1. create sql file for db/table structure, eg

   CREATE TABLE person (
   	id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
   	name TEXT NOT NULL,
   	age INTEGER NOT NULL,
   	significant_other TEXT,
   );

2. in a terminal, cd to the lighter checkout (you can drag it from the package dependencies in xcode) and run swift run sqlite2swift <config-file> <target> <input-files> <output-file>

3. if needed, add the newly created swift file to your project and use it!

but knowing how to get to that point is scattered all over what's in the repo here. Having something like this in the getting started or readme would be be an immense help!