Go lookup "database" in any mainstream dictionary. No, wait. I'll do it for you. Here's what Princeton's wordnet thinks a database is:
Noun
S: (n) database (an organized body of related information)
Note a lack of references to indexes, attributes, varchars, or any other SQL-specific artifact.
Here's what my deadtree edition Webster's unabridged dictionary thinks a database is:
data base, data bank, a large collection of data in a computer, organized so it can be expanded, updated, and retrieved rapidly for various uses: also written database, databank.
Again note a lack of 'attributes', and a few moments of careful thought will prove that a structured text file matches the definition of database precisely. You, sir, are the one inventing your own definitions.
By the way: When YOU can write such a program, YOURSELF MIND YOU (& make it do ALL THAT I NOTE ABOVE) & not just "use others' tools" as I suspect you are only capable of, & faster than mine? Well, then?? Then, you can talk... otherwise, you're a windbag b.s. artist, period. A talker/wannabe...
Let's consider specifications:
* Remove trailing blanks
* Translate 127.0.0.1, 0.0.0.0, and 0 entries to a specific value (for argument's sake, say '0').
* Remove duplicate entries
* Sort alphabetically
If this is correct, then I can write, and have written, a piece of shellscript that accomplishes all these tasks which runs in under a minute. What possible reason could there be to re-implement the wheel in this case? Surely if you are as established a programmer as that collection of unverifiable citations and forum posts would be intended to support, then you understand the value of relying on code re-use. And it takes no thought at all to consider a <1min script as vastly superior to the >1hr (but entirely hand-written and optimized!) code. I could give you my credentials as a programmer, but you wouldn't believe them, and my past employers certainly wouldn't be willing to divulge sensitive information to a wild-eyed forum troll. So I'm sure you understand why I'd rather just let you think whatever you like about my abilities and education, rather than open up another line of pointless flamewar.
But that's gone rather far afield. The argument, which you seem to've forgotten, is that a HOSTS database is an unsupported and poorly-chosen kludge that a simple AdBlocking extension makes a far superior replacement for, and that if DNS security is your concern, that a local DNS server can be run with heightened security and rendered nigh impervious to Dan Kaminsky's attack. Your religious mania, your ersatz multiple degrees, your claimed work history, they are no more than argumentum ad verecundiam, and mean nothing. Please stay on topic, flamewars are so much more fun that way.
Oh, and:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
You would do well to avoid aggrandizing yourself with that particular reference. Unless you mean to imply you are a washed-up and useless wreck.