[DB-SIG] Request: Standardized way to get database schema

[Fabien COUTANT]

Hello,
I'm currently thinking about writing a python based database schema editor, as well as thin helper classes 
for database <-> (Gtk) GUI interactions.
I had a quick look outside, to see some approaching tools already exist, but those tools are always specific 
to some database (mostly MySQL/PostgreSQL). What I want is a tool that only relies on DB-API standard 
drivers.
For my tool I need schema introspection features. Unfortunately, all databases have this feature available, 
but always in a specific way. I expected that DB-API would provide a standard way to access those 
informations, but it doesn't. Is there any reason for this ?

Wouldn't it be interesting and valuable (I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one missing this feature) to work on a 
DB-API extension (or a new version) for this ?

There is not that much information to get if you want to remain standard w.r.t SQL:
- list of tables,
- list of columns for each table,
- list of primary/foreign keys for each table (with target table, and source and target columns)
- standard characteristics of columns (type, nullable, default value)
- indexes for each table

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Hope this helps,
Fabien.