Re: Annotated release notes - Mailing list pgsql-docs

I included some text about the information schema in
this issue of general bits.  I also did some documentation
of comparison of the changes in the postgresql.conf.

Anyone who wants to grab parts of those items in that
issue has my permission. I don't have time to re-edit
for the release note format.  But maybe there is some
clarification text you can use.

http://cookie.varlena.com:8080/varlena/GeneralBits/48.php

elein

On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 11:59:05PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>
> OK, I have committed changes to release.sgml so most complex entries
> have a paragraph describing the change.  You can see the result at:
>
>     http://candle.pha.pa.us/main/writings/pgsql/sgml/release.html#RELEASE-7-4
>
> I need people to check this and help me with the items marked 'bjm'.  I
> am confused about the proper text for those sections.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tatsuo Ishii wrote:
> > > Tatsuo Ishii wrote:
> > > > > I've been pushing this agenda for a few releases now, but some people have
> > > > > been, er, boycotting it.  I think, too, that release notes *must* be
> > > > > written incrementally at the same time that the feature change is made.
> > > > > This is the only way we can get accurate and complete release notes, and
> > > > > the descriptions could even include some context, some motivations, etc.
> > > > > We have release cycles of 10 months, and there is no way we can make
> > > > > sensible release notes by gathering individual commit messages over that
> > > > > period of time.  Heck, ECPG has a full Informix compatibility mode and
> > > > > there is no mention of that anywhere, because there was no commit "Add
> > > > > Informix mode."
> > > > >
> > > > > I suggest we just do it like the documentation:  If you don't document it,
> > > > > it doesn't exist.  If you don't write a line for the release notes, it
> > > > > doesn't exist either.
> > > >
> > > > I tend to agree it. For every release I and my colleague have been
> > > > working on creating detailed release notes (of course in Japanese),
> > > > otherwise we cannot tell people what are changed, added or fixed since
> > > > there is little info in the official release note. This is painful
> > > > since we have to dig into the mail archives and cvs commit messages to
> > > > look for what each item of the official release note actually
> > > > means. These work take at least 2 to 3 weeks with several people
> > > > involved. The hardest part is what are fixed. The only useful
> > > > information seems to be the cvs commit messages, however typical
> > > > messages are something like "see recent discussions in the mail
> > > > archive for more details". This is not very helpful at least for
> > > > me. Once I proposed that we add a sequence number to each mail and the
> > > > commit messages point to the number. This way we could easily trace
> > > > what are the bug report and what are the actual intention for the
> > > > fix. For some reason noboy was interested in. Maybe this is due to
> > > > "coulture gap"... (In Japan giving a sequence number to each mail in
> > > > mailing lists is quite common).
> > >
> > > OK, if Tatsuo and SRA are having problems, I have to address it.  I can
> > > supply a more detailed list to Tatsuo/SRA, or I can beef up the release
> > > notes to contain more information.  Seems some in the community would
> > > like to have this detail so I might as well do it and have it in the
> > > official docs.  One idea would be to add a section at the bottom of the
> > > release notes that goes into detail on changes listed in the release
> > > notes above --- that way, people can still skim the 300-line release
> > > notes, and if they want detailed information about the optimizer changes
> > > or subtle pg_dump fixes, that will be at the bottom.
> > >
> > > How does that sound?  I can start on this for 7.4 next week.  It
> > > basically means going through the CVS logs again and pulling out
> > > additional details.
> >
> > Sounds good. However this kind of information could become huge and I
> > am afraid it does not suite well in the official docs in the source
> > tree. I think putiing it in somewhere in a web site (maybe
> > http://developer.postgresql.org/?) might be more appropreate.
> > What do you think?
> > --
> > Tatsuo Ishii
> >
>
> --
>   Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
>   pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
>   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
>   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
>
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