Re: Can I get some PostgreSQL developer feedback on these five general issues I have with PostgreSQL and its ecosystem?

On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 10:22:31PM +0200, tutiluren(at)tutanota(dot)com wrote:
> 4. There is no built-in means to have PG manage (or even suggest) indexes on
> its own. Trying to figure out what indexes to create/delete/fine-tune, and
> determine all the extremely complex rules for this art (yes, I just called
> index management an *art*, because it is!), is just utterly hopeless to me. It
> never gets any easier. Not even after many years. It's the by far worst part of
> databases to me (combined with point five). Having to use third-party solutions
> ensures that it isn't done in practice, at least for me. I don't trust, nor do
> I want to deal with, external software and extensions in my databases. I still
> have nightmares from PostGIS, which I only keep around, angrily, out of
> absolute necessity. I fundamentally don't like third-party add-ons to things,
> but want the core product to properly support things. Besides, this (adding/
> managing indexes) is not even some niche/obscure use-case, but something which
> is crucial for basically any nontrivial database of any kind!

I think you did a very good job of explaining your issues. I think the
underlying problem is that Postgres is targeting a wide market, and your
use-case for a more limited or self-contained database doesn't fit many
of those markets. Also, PostGIS is one of the most complex extensions,
so adding simpler ones should not be as hard.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB https://enterprisedb.com

The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness, Bruce Lee