Re: [PATCHES] Adding fulldisjunctions to the contrib

On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 10:07:06AM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Jonah H. Harris wrote:
> > On 8/12/06, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> > > More seriously: the current state of affairs is that the
> > > full-disjunction code exists as a pgfoundry project. If it's
> > > indeed the second greatest thing since sliced bread, then I
> > > think we could assume that people will find it and use it from
> > > pgfoundry.
> >
> > That goes back to assuming people not only know about pgfoundry,
> > but are similarly willing to search it.
> >
> > > The question that's on the table is whether it needs to be in
> > > contrib right now. I have not seen either a technical argument
> > > or popularity argument why it ought to move into contrib.
> >
> > In addition to knowing that Tzahi has put a *very* significant
> > amount of work into his research as well as this code over the
> > past few months, I have to agree with several items stated by
> > "Agent M".
> >
> > This is the *first* implementation of this concept in any database
> > system, so there's not going to be anyone jumping up and down
> > singing it's praises just yet. However, when people do get a
> > chance to play with it, I believe we'll have a number of them
> > saying how useful it is. There are several contrib modules still
> > included in the system that aren't that heavily used... I don't
> > see the harm in including this one for at least this release. If
> > no one uses it, take it out for 8.3.
> >
> > IMHO, this is just a really cool piece of technology that provides
> > functionality which can't be done any other way; why not give it a
> > chance?
>
> Our distribution is not a place to experiment with things. That's
> what separate pgfoundry projects are for. The fact we have some
> unusual things in /contrib is not a reason to add more.

If it's on track to become part of PostgreSQL, as other innovative
features have in the past, it very much does belong there. Why
marginalize the very thing that PostgreSQL is really good
at--innovative new features--by putting it somewhere where few people
will ever even see it?

If there were some very, very clear language every place a person
could download, check references, or install PostgreSQL that new
experimental features are at pgFoundry, that might be different. As
it is, you have to be truly dedicated even to discover that pgFoundry
exists.

Let's get full disjunctions in contrib with a good README and have
people figure out what to do with them from there. If no one demands
full inclusion in a couple of versions, let's take it out.

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778 AIM: dfetter666
Skype: davidfetter

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