Re: hot standby - merged up to CVS HEAD

On Sat, 2009-08-08 at 22:02 -0400, Robert Haas wrote:

> I think it would also be fair to point out that you keep saying that
> you're going to deliver this patch for 8.5, but you haven't provided
> any real timetable as to when you're going to start working on it or
> when it'll be completed. Because this patch IS so important to the
> community, people want to know the answers to those questions. That
> is exactly why you were asked about your schedule at PGcon; and you
> demurred.

I'm not sure I have ever demurred on anything, a failing I'm sure.

I mentioned that HS would make sense to go in *after* Synch Rep and I
stand by that, since we only have so many people that understand that
area and we cannot do everything at once.

HS is important. That is why I have put so much time and money into
being in a position where the end of the tunnel is in sight. Had I not
done so, we wouldn't even be discussing it.

> I think it's unfair to ask
> other people to wait for you to work on something when you haven't
> committed to a timetable for working on it

I've not asked anybody to wait. I tried very, very hard to get HS into
8.4 and many people were opposed to that. The next release of Postgres
isn't released until next year. If it matters as to which month it goes
into Postgres, I've not heard anybody explain why the exact month is
important. I don't see anything there myself of concern to the
community.

I'm working on HS; I've said so clearly and say it again now. To my
knowledge, no other Postgres project has committed to a timetable for
delivery, so I'm not clear why you think one should have been given
here, or why the absence of such a timetable implies anything. Dev tree
only opened again about a month ago, the dates of which were not
published in advance, so no detailed planning was possible for people
contributing to the beta and release of 8.4.

Want an HS Timetable? Well, I will try to complete it for next
commit-fest, but there may be issues that mean it comes in the next one
after that. So Sept 15, or maybe Nov 15. My understanding is that
community wants quality and so that is my #1 priority. I'll make code
available on Sept 15, so that we either have a WIP patch or a
request-for-commit patch, not sure which it will be.

> I understand that your #1 priority needs to be the work for
> which you get paid the most money, but I think it's unfair to ask
> other people to wait for you to work on something when you haven't
> committed to a timetable for working on it. It might be unfair to ask
> it even if you had committed to a timetable and that timetable was
> well out in the future, but it's certainly unfair when there is no
> timetable at all.

I'm not embarrassed by discussing money but that doesn't make it my
personal priority. I'm sure you didn't mean to imply I was mercenary.

I've contributed to the community for years, mostly unpaid. Which means
I do at some point have to take work that pays. If I have ever got paid
for working on Postgres, it has always been at a much lower rate than I
would have otherwise received, so if anything I've lost money by working
on Postgres. My choice. I parted with EDB specifically to allow me to
spend more time working on software for Postgres, which would otherwise
have certainly been denied me. My choice, nobody else's and one that has
worked well for me. I've chosen contribution to this community over
money many, many times.

The current team will continue working on HS; assistance from any and
every other hacker is welcome in producing that. Not all effort is
productive teamwork, however, and I encourage anyone that wishes to help
on a project prior to patch submission to contact the patch author to
discuss that first, to coordinate and avoid wasted effort. People
interested in review and test need not make contact, since they'll have
access to the code in the normal way.

--
Simon Riggs www.2ndQuadrant.com