Re: [HACKERS] Slow count(*) again...

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:33 PM, Mladen Gogala <mladen(dot)gogala(at)vmsinfo(dot)com> wrote:
> Kevin Grittner wrote:
>> Mladen Gogala <mladen(dot)gogala(at)vmsinfo(dot)com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Maybe we can agree to remove that ridiculous "we don't want hints"
>>> note from Postgresql wiki?
>>>
>>
>>  I'd be against that.  This is rehashed less frequently since that
>> went in.  Less wasted time and bandwidth with it there.
>
> Well, the problem will not go away.  As I've said before, all other
> databases have that feature and none of the reasons listed here convinced me
> that everybody else has a crappy optimizer.  The problem may go away
> altogether if people stop using PostgreSQL.

You seem to be asserting that without hints, problem queries can't be
fixed. But you haven't offered any evidence for that proposition, and
it doesn't match my experience, or the experience of other people on
this list who have been using PostgreSQL for a very long time. If you
want to seriously advance this conversation, you should (1) learn how
people who use PostgreSQL solve these problems and then (2) if you
think there are cases where those methods are inadequate, present
them, and let's have a discussion about it. People in this community
DO change their mind about things - but they do so in response to
*evidence*. You haven't presented one tangible example of where the
sort of hints you seem to want would actually help anything, and yet
you're accusing the people who don't agree with you of being engaged
in a religious war. It seems to me that the shoe is on the other
foot. Religion is when you believe something first and then look for
evidence to support it. Science goes the other direction.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company