PostgreSQL Weekly News - July 25th 2003 - Mailing list pgsql-announce

== PostgreSQL Weekly News - July 25th 2003 ==


    Well we are still technically in feature freeze, with beta now planned
to start next week.  Don't confuse feature freeze with no activity, far
from it actually. In fact, there are now plans to release a 7.3.4 before
beta testing begins.  The need arises from a potentially serious
(although extremely low probability) bug in 7.3.3 when restarting the
server. Since it should be released before the next weekly news, keep an
eye out for the announcement on the website or in the mailing lists.

    With all of that going on, there has still been quite a bit of
activity on 7.4. A majority of the error code overhaul has been
completed, including the areas of libpq, the postmaster, foreign-key
triggers, items in /lib, and the back end planner, parser, and executor.
EXTRACT(TIMEZONE) and SET/SHOW TIMEZONE now follow the SQL convention
for the sign of timezone offsets (ie, positive is east from UTC). The
behavior of COMMENT ON DATABASE was changed to emit a WARNING and
continue, rather than raising ERROR, when database name is unknown or
not the current database. Ecpg saw several fixes for Informix
compatibility and it will also now allow blanks at the end of numerical
values.

    We now defend against trying to attach qual conditions to a
setOperation query node, since that does not work unless the planner is
upgraded. An upper limit was added to IS_VALID_JULIAN() to defend
against overflow in date2j().  This ensures we give reasonable errors
instead of bizarre behavior for input dates far in the future.
Comparison files have been added to allow some case-insensitive locales
to sort either upper case before lower case or vice versa.

    Other miscellaneous fixes incude  a work around for buggy strxfrm()
present in some Solaris releases was put in, the postgresql.conf file
formatting was cleaned up, ereport-related functions were added to
GETTEXT_TRIGGERS list, a regression test for rules was updated, and we
no longer report sequences in pg_tables, the threading configure tests
were fixed, some logic problems in pg_stat_initstats where worked out, a
GUC parameter was added to control rendezvous name, and Mike Quinn sent
in a patch to fix the relkind test for pg_tables.

    The long awaited tsearch2 was committed to cvs this week. tsearch2
deprecates tsearch1 (though both will be included) and provide a number
of benefits for it's users. It should also be mentioned that, while it
is committed to the 7.4 release, it should be backward compatible with
7.3.x, if there is enough demand I believe the developers are planning
to make the code available as a package for 7.3.x.

    JDBC got a shot in the arm thanks to patches from several developers.
dmitry@openratings.com provided a patch to fix a bug with parsing of
array values, and Kim Ho supplied a patch fixing compile problems under
jdk1.2. There was also a fix to prevent SQL injection attacks when
calling setObject(int,Object,int).

    Even though we are nearing release, it doesn't hurt to look ahead, as
evidenced by several additions to the TODO list this week: delay
resolution of array expression type to assignment coercion can be
performed on empty array expressions, have AFTER triggers execute after
the appropriate SQL statement in a function, not at the end of the
function, more details on possible tablespace definitions were added,
add PL/PHP, allow PL/pgSQL to name columns by ordinal position (e.g.
rec.(3)), and prevent COMMENT ON DATABASE from using a database name.
Some of these already have folks working on them, however if you are
interested in lending a hand please don't be afraid to speak up.

    And that covers most of what went on this week of "feature freeze". I
noticed that some translation work was done on the German and Czech
versions of PostgreSQL, never hurts to get an early jump I suppose. Next
week I should have final information on 7.3.4 and, maybe, more
information on how to get involved in the 7.4 beta process.



== PostgreSQL Product News ==

XpSQL 0.9 (xml database environment) released
http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/xpsql/news/newsfull.php?news_id=123

Revolution 2.1 In Beta Testing
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/07/16.17.shtml

Availability of TelegraphCQ v0.2 (BETA release)
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-07/msg00407.php



== PostgreSQL In the News ==

Getting Started With PostgreSQL
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/postgresql/article.php/2236291

Free WYSIWYG Forums Now Available at Bloki.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/07-22-2003/0001986454

Linux Access in State and Local Government, Part V
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7008&mode=thread&order=0



== Upcoming Events ==

PostgreSQL training at the Big Nerd Ranch : Atlanta, Georgia: August
18-22
Bruce Momjian will provide a one week training class.
http://www.bignerdranch.com/Classes/Postgresql.html

1-day PostgreSQL Workshop : Turkey / Istanbul'da : August 23
FrontSITE & TDM is offering 1-day course on PostgreSQL
http://www.frontsite.com.tr
http://www.tdmsoft.com/egitim_ayrinti.php?id=1

Gnu/Linux Congress: Veracruz, Mexico: September 17-19
Bruce Momjian has been asked to give a keynote address and he will also
be presenting tutorials
http://congreso.gulev.org.mx



== PostgreSQL Weekly News - July 25th 2003 ==
Don't forget to read Elein Mustain's Weekly Summary of the PostgreSQL
General Mailing List http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/

On the Web:
http://www.postgresql.org
http://advocacy.postgresql.org