Re: Pet Peeves?

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 05:18:19PM +0000, Gregory Stark wrote:
> David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> writes:
>
> > * No built-in ways to get the information psql gets. "See what
> > psql is doing" isn't an option when somebody doesn't have psql on
> > hand.
>
> Uhm, what information are you referring to here?

All the stuff that generates \d output is available only to psql.
When somebody wants to make another client, or even expose some of
that functionality, they pretty much have to roll it from scratch.

> > * No man pages for the internals.
>
> Is it just that not all of the manual is actually exported into man
> pages? Or is there stuff you would like to see in the manual that
> isn't there?

The configuration files (postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf, at least)
and the stuff in libpq and SPI would be a great start.

> > * CTEs not yet integrated into the adjacency lists in pg_catalog,
> > etc.
>
> I'm not sure what you're referring to here either.

The DAG structures in pg_depend leap to mind. There's no view that
shows the actual dependencies, except in the sense of, "Here's the
edges. Figure it out for yourself."

> > Remember to vote!
>
> This may not be so timely any more, though I suppose there's always
> someone somewhere holding elections :)

It's always time to vote on *something* :)

Oh, and one more "associated project" peeve:

* PostGIS doesn't ship with core PostgreSQL.

I've come up with a strategy for fixing it. "Port JTS
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/jts-topo-suite/> from Java to C and
BSDL the result," is a pretty gigantic task, and it's just the start,
but I'm pretty sure it's the right strategy for fixing the peeve.

Cheers,
David.
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
Phone: +1 415 235 3778 AIM: dfetter666 Yahoo!: dfetter
Skype: davidfetter XMPP: david(dot)fetter(at)gmail(dot)com

Remember to vote!
Consider donating to Postgres: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate