Re: UUID v7 - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Any chance we can bring some organization to this work?  The subject line is too vague to be helpful and thus the thread itself seems to be torn between fixing stuff in UUID v7 and, separately, making a documentation enhancement.  I don't see a commitfest entry yet - so how about just starting two new, well-named, threads, with a summary and current patch proposal for each topic?  Though I do sense some overlap such that some of the content probably needs to be written up assuming the fix patch goes in first, then the documentation patch.  We can always tweak that should the documentation patch take the lead.

I haven't followed the technical subthread but was asked to comment on the documentation work off-list (spending enough time editing the DOCX original and imposing what seems to be the current proposed structure to at least warrant a mention).  A decent part of my commentary was basically that a lot of this material seems outside the scope of what we cover in our documentation generally.  I'd probably be ok with moving it to an appendix and making sure the relevant places have links to there.  More than just UUID needs to be altered if you begin comparing UUID to bigint - you need to add some content to bigint too.

Commenting specifically on the 4 goals:

1. State that from now on, the function uuidv7(), rather than autoincrement, is the default choice for generating primary keys

We don't make these judgements in the documentation, typically.  Happy to be pointed to exceptions.  Simple enough to avoid saying:

"The uuidv7 function is designed as the preferred method for generating primary keys" and instead just say "...it can be used as an identifier generator and see Appendix Z for how it compares to other methods."

2. Describe the advantages of uuidv7() over autoincrement and uuidv4()

This is fine; but probably appendix material.

3. Refute the often-cited imaginary disadvantages of UUIDv7 compared to autoincrement,

This also seems strictly out-of-place; better suited to a Wiki page than the documentation.  Though making statements of fact, and possibly the occasional clarification of a non-fact, would likely fit inline.  Or as part of the Appendix created to hold the table in goal #2.

4. Confirm the fault tolerance of the uuidv7() function in all possible critical situations,

This fits into the user-facing specification of the generator function in some manner.

I did have some alternative text for all this which I'll share, ideally when there is a clear place to put it up for discussion.

David J.