Re: 7.4 features list

On Mon, 5 May 2003, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> When we started on 7.4 development, I was hoping for three major
> features:
>
> o PITR (point-in-time recovery)
> o Win32 port
> o Master-slave Postgres-R
>
> Now, the last one isn't going to happen because we didn't get any
> funding for the replication guys. The first one is being worked on by
> Patrick at Red Hat, and I have seen a patch, but I am not sure how close
> it is to completion. Patrick?
>
> For Win32, I was moving along well until I hit the fork/exec changes.
> They are extensive, and I am having problems because though the port is
> good from PeerDirect, it does take more work to get it up to our coding
> standards, and second, it is against 7.2, and I have to factor all
> changes up to our current CVS code.
>
> I am continuing on the work, but I am now uncertain I can complete by
> code freeze in Mid-May, or even by the end of May.
>
> I am unsure what we should do:
>
> delay code freeze
> allow Win32 patches during beta
> delay Win32 for 7.5

I've wondered recently at other mentions of the impending feature freeze and
wondering why that appears to have been set in stone. I know from comments
leading to 7.3 that there have been problems in the past with timetable
slippage but is it really sensible to essentially throw out a major feature
that will take another 6+ months to be released for the sake of a short delay
for the coming release?

Considering the slippage danger I'd say getting realistic estimates of the
timetable for these features would be a good idea. Freezing can then be fixed
at a time where there is a good chance the code will be done by and with the
'feature freeze' part emphasised, i.e. let the timetable slip this once but
that's it.

--
Nigel J. Andrews