Re: SP-GiST support for inet datatypes

Emre Hasegeli <emre(at)hasegeli(dot)com> writes:
> Attached patches add SP-GiST support to the inet datatypes.

I started to look at this patch. The reported speedup is pretty nice,
but ...

> The operator
> class comes with a small change on the SP-GiST framework to allow fixed
> number of child nodes.

... this part of the patch breaks the existing API for SP-GiST opclasses.
That is a hard sell. It may only matter for one existing opclass in core,
but unless we have reason to think nobody is using any custom SP-GiST
opclasses, that is not a pleasant thing to do. How important is it really
for this opclass? Several of the existing opclasses use fixed numbers of
child nodes, so why does this need something they don't?

regards, tom lane