On the topic of funds, I would like to draw attention again to this.
I had requested that all proposals be submitted to me by June 22 (please read the whole thread), but I am happy to extend until June 25, if there is interest in proposing work on DB libraries as part of this. Also do note, that NumFocus runs this on an ongoing basis, so this is not the only time to submit.
We could also seriously consider having a GSoC project or two on this topic next year.
I think it is a good start to voice these concerns, and gathering others who care about such functionality. Money is not the hardest part, in my opinion. What happens after the work on a set of high quality db access libraries is funded?
Someone still has to maintain them - and the community that owns and maintains those packages will need to be motivated by their user communities. This is a good start, but we probably need more people to file issues, design considerations, and perhaps even consolidate packages. These are the questions anyone funding will ask - because their biggest question often is whether work they fund now will continue to be maintained, or whether it needs ongoing funds. Of course, reaching 1.0 helps in a big way.
-viral