PostgreSQL Weekly News - Jan 22nd 2003

== PostgreSQL Weekly News - Jan 22nd 2003 ==

An important discussion about the needs for a 7.2.4 release took
place this week, and while no decision has been made, some commits to
the REL7_2_STABLE branch have been applied. In particular were fixes for
integer overflow (Neil Conway) and fixing some issues with Vacuum (Tom
Lane). It's likely other fixes would be applied before a release so if
your running 7.2.X and can't upgrade to 7.3.X for some reason, keep an
eye out for this. If you really need it, you might want to jump in on
the discussion on the -hackers list, but be aware that even with a 7.2.4
release, there will still be plenty of fixes and enhancements available
in 7.3.X that can't be back-patched, so upgrading to 7.3.X is still
strongly recommended.

This week saw an enhancement in error notification for 7.4, so that
information about detected deadlock cycles is easier to find. There were
also a couple of enhancements to the optimizer regarding query
optimization. Those that want nitty-gritty details can check out the cvs
logs.

From the "let's try and head this one off at the pass department"
some new information was added to the FAQ for question 4.8 regarding
indexes. Reading the FAQ is always a good idea, you can view the most
current version at http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faq-english.html

Several improvements for JDBC support were committed this week; one
improving the getImportedKeys function (Kris Jurka), one to better
support java timestamps (Florian Wunderlich), and one fixing a bug
involving timestamps without time zone (Rhett Sutphin).

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know some work is being done of
those darn IN queries. The latest change allows IN clauses appearing at
top level of WHERE can now be handled as joins. There are two
implementation techniques: the executor understands a new JOIN_IN
jointype, which emits at most one matching row per left-hand row, or the
result of the IN's sub-select can be fed through a DISTINCT filter and
then joined as an ordinary relation.

And last, but definitely not least, Jan Wieck has submitted a patch
for native windows support. The patch files are based on the 7.2.1 tree
and compile against both Red Hat Linux and Windows 2000. There is still
a lot to do, but it's a good start and I think a big step for
PostgreSQL. I'd like to personally give thanks to PeerDirect
corporation, who employs Jan and contributed the work back to the
PostgreSQL community. You can view Jan's original announcement at
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-01/msg00725.php

== PostgreSQL Product News ==

OpenOSX shipping OpenDB 2.2
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0301/17.openosx.php

PeerDirect Moves on Linux
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,836211,00.asp

== PostgreSQL In the News ==

PostgreSQL affiliates .ORG domain
http://www.computerworld.com.au/idg2.nsf/All/2ADD84E6EBCEADE9CA256CB30075FA01!OpenDocument&n=Sections&c=Software+Development

Battle of the Open Source Databases
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20495.html

== Upcoming Events ==

Linux.Conf.Au : Perth, Australia : January 22-25
Gavin Sherry will be providing a detailed overview of PostgreSQL, and be
running a BoF as well.
http://www.linux.conf.au
http://www.linux.conf.au/abstracts.cgi?id=T45

Open Source Weekend : Ottawa, Canada : January 25-26
PostgreSQL, Inc. will have a booth and be involved in panel discussions
at Open Source Weekend
http://www.osw.ca/
http://www.pgsql.com/press/PR_OSW-03.html

FOSDEM: Brussels, Belgium: February 8-9
A two-day PostgreSQL training track will be part of the FOSDEM
conference.
http://candle.pha.pa.us/fosdem/
http://www.fosdem.org/index

== PostgreSQL Weekly News - Jan 22nd 2003 ==

Don't forget to read Elein Mustain's Weekly Summary of the PostgreSQL
General Mailing List: http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/

On the Web:
http://www.postgresql.org
http://advocacy.postgresql.org