PostgreSQL has two bits of obsolete, incomplete functionality which
entrap and frustrate new users in large numbers. Both of these features
share the following characteristics:
* added more than 10 years ago
* have the same names as useful features from other databases
* were never finished and lack critical functionality
* have not seen significant work in the last 4 releases
Every other day on IRC I run into a newbie who has used one of these
features under the mistaken impression that it is useful, and then had
to be guided in how to get their data out of this broken feature at some
length. Unknown are the number of users who didn't ask for help but
simply chose to use a different database instead.
Of course, I'm talking about the MONEY type and hash indexes (not the
hash ops class, which is useful, just the index type). It's time to put
both of these features out to pasture. Certainly neither of theise
features would be accepted into PostgreSQL today given the shape they're in.
Having these broken features around is like leaving an armed bear-trap
in a public park.
Now, I know the first thing someone will do is jump up and claim that
they were just about to fix WAL-logging on hash indexes, or add casts to
the money type. But if that hasn't happened in the last 5 years, it's
not going to happen.
We'd be doing our users a huge favor by just removing them in 9.5.
--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://pgexperts.com
