MongoDB also saves document db type of store space just FYI.
SQLite files require opening in a DB terminal or using special software to even get to the point where one can see what’s there at all. Further the entire internet basically natively supports XML and JSON.
(Json has a higher threshold of complexity before it succumbs)
That said there is some nuance and it depends what the user expects. Is you app more of an MSWord where people expect a format that is decades backward compatible and only changes on explicit save, or is it more like a live app with a db back end. If the latter there should be no save concept around the DB file but perhaps a backup and restore function that exports to a controlled format.
All that matters is that you should be able to issue sql to the sqlite embedded library and get back the results.
Freeing you from the overhead of owning (thus inventing and then maintaining) your own file format is almost the entire point of using sqlite in this manner.
This has nothing to do with sqlite. You can have (or not have) gradual saves in any file format. It's a choice that the developers of that app made.
> file format may have braking changes
The sqlite file format is unchanged for 19 years now. A world of features and capabilities have been added since. Don't hold your breath waiting for the sqlite format to change.
Fair enough about the history of it not changing and you can always embed a frozen copy if it does. But this is a pragmatic assumption not a guarantee.
An app can go bananas with serialization and use, I dunno, binary JSON or Matroska / ebml or .mp4 containers or whatever, and still serialize any way it wants.