== PostgreSQL Weekly News - March 19 2005 ==

== PostgreSQL Weekly News - March 19 2005 ==

Mark Rae did some tests on SMP scaling for PostgreSQL and found that
CVS TIP is an improvement over 8.0.1. Details in this thread:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2005-03/msg00837.php

Christopher Kings-Lynne has developed a set of new PHP access function
for PostgreSQL to support our v3 protocol, which should improve
performance of PostgreSQL-PHP. There was a small legal hitch with the
requirement to re-license parts of the PostgreSQL documentation to
PHP, but that's being resolved.

Satoshi Nagayasu volunteered to work on the "Read-Only Database" TODO
item.

There was an extensive, around how to invalidate cached query plans
which have outlived their usefulness. The product of this was Neil
Conway proposing work on a query planner overhaul that would store its
plan in a fashion that interferes less with our plan caching; however,
the exact architecture of this is not yet determined.

Magnus Hagander has written an addition to the website to database the
PostgreSQL Consultants List
(http://techdocs.postgresql.org/companies.php) and integrate it with
the main web site. This should be up in a couple of weeks. If you
are a PostgreSQL consulting company, please e-mail josh(at)postgresql(dot)org
with any updates to your information on the referenced page.

Development of a full-featured OLE-DB driver for PostgreSQL proceeds
full speed ahead, let by Shachar Shemesh.

Merlin Moncure proposed a patch to hide the function source in the
pg_proc table from unprivileged users, which was opposed by Tom Lane
(rejected, basically) for being an incomplete solution. The idea is
back to the drawing board for a better implementation.

Tom Lane has discovered that the patch to pg_was he added for 8.0 to
detect a dead lockfile situation on startup was inadequate and is
being re-written.

Michael Fuhr discovered the following cryptic remark in our source
code:
From src/backend/tcop/postgres.c:
/* they only drink coffee at dec */
If you know what this comment means, please mail david(at)fetter(dot)org and
we'll publish your explanation next week.

Tom Lane proposed an implementation of a "Local Buffers" feature to
allow allocation of per-user buffers specifically for holding
temporary tables.

The pgsql-performance mailing list had extensive discussions on the
query planner parameter model, how to read a query plan, and
correlated cost estimation for multi-column indexes.

WWPI (Weekly Windows Port Issue):
Andrew Dunstan reported that contrib/pg_buffercache is apparently
broken on Windows. A patch for the issue was posted but has not yet
been tested/merged.

Adrian Nida wrote a document elucidating PAM authentication for
PostgreSQL.
http://itc.musc.edu/wiki/PostgreSQL

== PostgreSQL Product News ==

Bricolage 1.8.5 released.
http://www.bricolage.cc/news/announce/changes/bricolage-1.8.5/

New pgExpress Driver v3.0 released.
http://www.vitavoom.com/Products/pgExpress_Driver/index.html

PostgreSQL RPM Building Project has announced new RPM sets for many
platforms. Also, SuSE RPMs are on PostgreSQL FTP sites and its
mirrors.
http://pgblog.gunduz.org/index.php?entry=entry050311-105840

DataKiosk 0.6 released. DataKiosk is a JuK-like database interface
tool for generic SQL databases.
http://www.issociate.de/board/post/188936/dataKiosk_0.6_released.html

EMS PostgreSQL Data Pump, DB Comparer and Extract released.
http://www.postgresql.org/about/news.296

Oryx Mailstore 0.92 is a mail archive server that uses PostgreSQL.
See http://www.oryx.com/mailstore/0.92.html and .../overview.html

Microolap Technologies Ltd is proud to announce the availability of
version 2.0 of "PostgresDAC", Delphi and C++ Builder components for
direct access to PostgreSQL.
http://www.postgresql.org/about/news.295

Big Nerd Ranch is offering PostgreSQL training the week of April 18 -
22. Their comprehensive PostgreSQL Bootcamp is taught in a
retreat-like setting near Atlanta, GA.
http://www.bignerdranch.com/classes/postgresql.shtml

== PostgreSQL in the News ==

Core member Josh Berkus's interview with Mad Penguin on PostgreSQL
adoption. It got a mention on Slashdot.
http://madpenguin.org/cms/html/62/3677.html

Coming this week in General Bits: A Unix Hacker's Windows Experience;
Preventing Key Updates; Capsule Summary of Josh Berkus' Open Source
Classification.
http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/

This week on www.powerpostgreqsl.com: Josh Berkus classifies FLOSS
projects.
http://www.powerpostgresql.com/5_types

PostgreSQL Weekly News brought to you this week by David Fetter, Josh
Berkus and Elein Mustain.