Re: Time to start the PR machine

Very nice first shot. I think you are getting the hang
of this :)

My suggestion overall is to identify the ones where
"magic" just happens and the one you have to do something
to use. It seems that the ones that just improve overall
are strong this time with bitmap indexes and improved
multiprocessor performance.

--elein

On Fri, Aug 26, 2005 at 02:05:48PM -0700, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Well, folks, it's that time of year again! That time when we spend a few
> weeks arguing over phrasing in the PostgreSQL Release.
>
> So, here's starting it off (get your word-axes ready):
> (oh, and this is the same exact layout as previous releases. innovative
> ideas for re-arranging the text are very welcome)
>
> =================
> ## November 2005: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announced today
> the release of PostgreSQL 8.1. The new version, containing many advanced
> database features as well as performance enhancements, makes PostgreSQL
> the reference platform for high-volume, high-peformance open source data
> centers.
>
> "This is our second major release in 2005," said _____, PostgreSQL major
> contributor, "It's very exciting. Thanks to all of the new programmers
> and companies contributing to the project, as well as automated testing,
> development is faster than every before."
>
> Among the many enhancements to PostgreSQL 8.1 are:
>
> Improved Multiprocessor (SMP) Performance: the buffer manager for 8.1 has
> been enhanced to scale almost linearly with the number of processors,
> leading to significant performance gains on 8-way, 16-way and multicore
> servers.
>
> Two-Phase Commit (2PC): long in demand for WAN applications and
> heterogenous data centers using PostgreSQL, this feature allows
> ACID-compliant transactions across widely separated servers.
>
> Bitmapscan: Some indexes will be automatically converted to bitmaps in
> memory, giving up to 20x faster index performance on complex queries
> against very large tables. Bitmapscan also greatly reduces the need for
> multi-column indexes.
>
> Roles: PostgreSQL now supports database roles, which simplify the
> management of large user bases with complex overlapping database rights.
>
> Shared Row Locking: we have continued to improve on the "better than
> row-level locking" which Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC) provides
> by supporting shared locks for relational references.
>
> Table Partitioning: in version 8.1, the query planner's ability to select
> the correct table partitions for each query (called Constraint Exclusion)
> is expanded, making PostgreSQL's table partitioning useful to a broader
> range of applications.
>
> "Blah new features blah blah," remarked some high-profile postgresql
> contributor. "Blah coolest yet blah blah blah."
>
> There are numerous other enhancements, which are detailed on our 8.1
> release page <link here>.
>
> Thanks to automated testing by a variety of sources, the PostgreSQL
> community has been able to have a shorter-than-ever beta period while
> increasing the reliability of the code. This included Andrew Dunstan's
> pgbuildfarm, OSDL's Scalable Test Platform, SpikeSource's SpikeWatch, and
> Coverity Prevent. As any developer knows, bugs caught early take far
> less time to resolve, and these tools have made that adage a reality for
> PostgreSQL.
>
> <contact info>
>
> <about postgresql>
>
>
> --
> --Josh
>
> Josh Berkus
> Aglio Database Solutions
> San Francisco
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
>