Re: vacuum locking

Josh Berkus wrote:
> > Our new project is large, high-profile, but not as data intensive as
> > the problematic one. We are willing to commit significant funding and
> > effort to make Postgres faster. We are "business value" driven. That
> > means we solve problems practically instead of theoretically. This
> > seems to be in conflict with "the Postgres way", which seems to be
> > more theoretical. Our business situation comes ahead of theories.
>
> As always, it's a matter of balance. Our "theoretical purity" has given
> PostgreSQL a reliability and recoverability level only otherwise obtainable
> from Oracle for six figures. And has allowed us to build an extensibility
> system that lets users define their own datatypes, operators, aggregates,
> etc., in a way that is not possible on *any* other database. This is what
> you're up against when you suggest changes to some of the core components ...
> people don't want to break what's not broken unless there are substantial,
> proven gains to be made.

Let me add a little historical perspective here --- the PostgreSQL code
base is almost 20 years old, and code size has doubled in the past 7
years. We are into PostgreSQL for the long haul --- that means we want
code that will be working and maintainable 7 years from now. If your
solution doesn't fit that case, well, you might be right, it might get
rejected. However, we find that it is worth the time and effort to make
our code sustainable, and it is possible your solution could be set up
to do that. However, it requires you to go beyond your "business
situation" logic and devote time to contribute something that will make
PostgreSQL better 5 years in the future, as well as the next release.

We have found very few companies that are not willing to work within
that long-term perspective.

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us | (610) 359-1001
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