Database design: Temporal databases

Hi list.

Some background information on the subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_database

I haven't used them before, but I like the idea of never
deleting/updating records so you have a complete history (a bit like
source code version control).

How well do temporal databases work? Do RDBMS (ie Postgresql) need
add-ons to make it effective, or can you just add extra temporal
columns to all your tables and add them to your app queries? Does this
increase app complexity and increase server load a lot?

Are there Python libraries which simplify this? (eg: add-ons for
Elixir or SQLAlchemy).

Or should apps all implement their own 'temporal data access' module,
which transparently uses the current date & time until queried for
historical data?

David.