> I believe you are complaining about me. In my defense I'll just say
> that your question was basically "how does the optimizer work", which
> covers rather a lot of territory. I didn't see any more useful answer
> than the one I gave you, short of writing a book which I was not about
> to do in private email.
>
> As I said in that mail and will say again, I believe in carrying on that
> sort of discussion in the pgsql-hackers list, where other developers and
> wannabee developers have some chance of benefiting from it. Private mail
> only teaches one person. As for IRC, personally I hate it: it discourages
> taking the time for a considered answer, it does not work well for
> people in vastly different timezones, and it leaves no archive trail
> that others might learn from later. However, there are other developers
> who think differently; I believe you can often find Bruce on IRC, for
> example.
>
> The PG community is big enough to support multiple interactions, and if
> some folk want to use IRC I have no objection to it. But I feel that
> the hub of the development activity is pgsql-hackers. There is nothing
> wrong with asking questions there.
I agree with Tom. General questions are best asked on hackers. IRC/AIM
is best for "what does this variable do" and "do I need to call elog()
here"; things that can hold you up from getting the job done. The delay
of email can be too slow for such exchanges and lacks the interactive
feel of discussing an issue with someone. So I think both have their
place in the PostgreSQL developers support structure.
--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000
+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
+ Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
