Thread: 7.4 Features
Hello, I have been asked to write an article for O'Reilly on the upcoming PostgreSQL 7.4 features. I have been going back and forth with which features to include in the article and have decided to let you guys do the work for me . Which features do we want to advertise as being the most "cool" in 7.4 for an O'Reilly article? Sincerely, Joshua Drake -- Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC - S/JDBC Postgresql support, programming, shared hosting and dedicated hosting. +1-503-222-2783 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com PostgreSQL.Org - Editor-N-Chief - http://www.postgresql.org
> Which features do we want to advertise as being the most "cool" in 7.4 > for an > O'Reilly article? Don't know really - lots and lots of speed improvements, but they're not really that "cool". Talk about the release of eRserver perhaps. Could talk about 'data warehousing'. Chris
Hello, I was thinking about: IPv6 Subselects that use indexes (hash joins) libpq thread safety regular expression enhancements Indexes no longer growing. Sincerely, Joshua Drake Christopher Kings-Lynne wrote: > >> Which features do we want to advertise as being the most "cool" in >> 7.4 for an >> O'Reilly article? > > > Don't know really - lots and lots of speed improvements, but they're > not really that "cool". Talk about the release of eRserver perhaps. > Could talk about 'data warehousing'. > > Chris > > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly -- Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC - S/JDBC Postgresql support, programming, shared hosting and dedicated hosting. +1-503-222-2783 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com PostgreSQL.Org - Editor-N-Chief - http://www.postgresql.org
The 'HISTORY' file in current CVS might be a good place to start: that already highlights several of the new features. On Tue, 2003-10-07 at 23:07, Joshua D. Drake wrote: > Subselects that use indexes (hash joins) Erm, I believe that's incorrect for several different reasons. I'd talk about each of the items under the "Performance" heading in the 7.4 relnotes, and perhaps give some examples where applicable. > libpq thread safety Hardly very exciting, IMHO. > Indexes no longer growing. This is a big one, although you might like to note that according to Tom, not all the cases of index growth might be fixed (there was a thread on -hackers about this recently). -Neil
Neil Conway wrote: > The 'HISTORY' file in current CVS might be a good place to start: that > already highlights several of the new features. > > On Tue, 2003-10-07 at 23:07, Joshua D. Drake wrote: > > Subselects that use indexes (hash joins) > > Erm, I believe that's incorrect for several different reasons. > > I'd talk about each of the items under the "Performance" heading in the > 7.4 relnotes, and perhaps give some examples where applicable. > > > libpq thread safety > > Hardly very exciting, IMHO. Yes, threads, I thought so too. I only added it because lot of people were asking for a thread-safe ecpg. In fact, they said they couldn't move to PostgreSQL without it. -- 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
> This is a big one, although you might like to note that according to > Tom, not all the cases of index growth might be fixed (there was a > thread on -hackers about this recently). It's a nice one - but given that probably 90% of postgres users don't even know it exists, surely we don't want to get more bad publicity? :) Chris
Joshua D. Drake wrote: > Hello, > > I was thinking about: > > IPv6 > Subselects that use indexes (hash joins) > libpq thread safety > regular expression enhancements > Indexes no longer growing. - Hash tables for IN queries improving performance by an order for such queries - ECG thread safety Bruce mentioned ecpg. IMO unless ECG scales up to Pro*C in Oracle, postgresql will have a sore spot. I hope with new FE/B protocol and additional enhancements, it would be there by 7.5. Can I mention pg_autovacuum here?..:-) Shridhar
Joshua wrote: > Which features do we want to advertise as being the most "cool" in 7.4 >for an >O'Reilly article? Domain improvements, especially check constraints. Domains are now usable in 7.4 and very powerful (and cool). The donated replication is certainly newsworthy, although I've never used it and don't know anything about it. I agree with the others: the performance enhancements are not really features (i.e. noteworthy, not newsworthy). I don't have the feature list in front of me, but in order of importance I think the technical press would like to see: 1. 'Enterprise level features' (replication, etc.) 2. Administrative ease of use benefits (index growth, vacuum improvements, and stuff like that) 3. Data integrity/definition features (domains, RI, better SQL support, etc.) 4. Highly anticipated win32 port. 5. Performance. Congrats on your article, hope it turns out well. Merlin
On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 02:43, Shridhar Daithankar wrote:
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I was thinking about:
> >
> > IPv6
> > Subselects that use indexes (hash joins)
> > libpq thread safety
> > regular expression enhancements
> > Indexes no longer growing.
>
> - Hash tables for IN queries improving performance by an order for such queries
> - ECG thread safety
>
> Bruce mentioned ecpg. IMO unless ECG scales up to Pro*C in Oracle, postgresql
> will have a sore spot. I hope with new FE/B protocol and additional
> enhancements, it would be there by 7.5.
>
> Can I mention pg_autovacuum here?..:-)
>
Yes, you can :-) pg_autovacuum and better index space management should
be big improvements from a maintenance standpoint.
I think it's also worth mentioning the the new SQL Schema and SQL Error
Code support, both enhancing our standards compliance.
Robert Treat
--
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL
On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Neil Conway wrote: > > Indexes no longer growing. > > This is a big one, although you might like to note that according to > Tom, not all the cases of index growth might be fixed (there was a > thread on -hackers about this recently). reword it as 'index compaction on vacuum' instead ... ?
>>> libpq thread safety >>> >>> >>Hardly very exciting, IMHO. >> >> > >Yes, threads, I thought so too. I only added it because lot of people >were asking for a thread-safe ecpg. In fact, they said they couldn't >move to PostgreSQL without it. > > Yes I have two customers that are waiting specifically for that feature which is why I brought it up. Sincerely, Joshua Drake -- Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC - S/JDBC Postgresql support, programming, shared hosting and dedicated hosting. +1-503-222-2783 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com PostgreSQL.Org - Editor-N-Chief - http://www.postgresql.org
Josh, <grin> If you'd paid more attention on this list, you wouldn't need to ask this question. Below is our summary which is going into the Press Kit. BTW, are you going to solicit on the lists for writers soon? -Josh New Enterprise Features in 7.4 Among the large enterprise features which have been added, expanded, or improved in version 7.4 are the following: REPLICATION PostgreSQL Inc. has contributed their eRServer Java-based replication solution to the PostgreSQL community. eRServer provides a highly scalable, battle-tested replication option significantly more powerful than previously available Open Source solutions. For more information, see the release on PostgreSQL Inc.'s web site. PERFORMANCE Several major performance enhancements have been added in version 7.4, enabling PostgreSQL to match or exceed the speed of other enterprise database systems. These include: Hash aggregation in memory to make data warehousing and OLAP queries up to 20 times faster; Improvements in subquery handling by the planner resulting in up to 400% speed increases in some complex queries; New script to set more reasonable postgresql.conf defaults for shared buffers, yielding better "out of the box" performance; New wire protocol (version 3) increases the speed of data transfers; Enhanced implementation of functional indexes allows better indexing on custom data types and composite fields; HIGH AVAILABILITY Expansion of PostgreSQL's Free Space Map disk management feature to support continuous index maintenance is the last "piece of the puzzle" in providing 24/7/365 uptime for PostgreSQL databases. The many hardware solutions vendors who include PostgreSQL as the embedded database in their applications may now eliminate the need for any data locking or downtime in their applications. OPTERON SUPPORT PostgreSQL is now optimized on the AMD Opteron, thanks to the work of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, adding to the family of proven 64-bit platforms which includes HP/Compaq, Alpha, Sun UltraSPARC, MIPS, PA-RISC, and RS6000*. 64-bit platforms are an emerging class of high-performance computing, with greater power and scalability needed for enterprise systems. FULL TEXT INDEXING PostgreSQL's TSearch module now includes a ranked preference system, making TSearch equal to or better than many full text indexing solutions offered by other RDBMSs. Adopting PostgreSQL Easier Than Ever The following enhancements aid in the testing, prototyping, and porting efforts of database professionals considering a switch to PostgreSQL: REORGANIZED AND EXPANDED DOCUMENTATION Completely reorganized and expanded online documentation, making it easier for first-time PostgreSQL database developers to get their databases built, tuned, and running. SQL-STANDARD ERROR FRAMEWORK Completely redesigned error logging and reporting, providing developers with an SQL99 compliant mechanism for debugging and troubleshooting, and giving users real time suggestions on how to avoid error conditions in their applications. SQL-STANDARD INFORMATION SCHEMA 7.4 includes an SQL99 compliant Information Schema (or "metadata"). This provides application developers with database, type, object, and configuration information in a way which eases the migration of interfaces and middleware between database systems, and even the replication of data between commercial databases and PostgreSQL. NEW GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI) VERSIONS PGAdmin and PHPPgAdmin, two of the three most popular GUIs for PostgreSQL will have new, extensively rewritten versions for PostgreSQL 7.4, making it morecomfortable than ever for database administrators to switch. QUERY REWRITING Includes a new option for explicit join rewriting by the query planner, easing the transition of existing applications and queries running on Sybase and MS SQL Server, which handle queries this way by default. Other Major Features ADVANCED SQL FEATURES PostgreSQL continues to expand its support for the SQL 92 and SQL 99 standards, maintaining its place as the industry leader in standards compliance by including many SQL features not found in other databases. New in 7.4 are statement-level triggers, enhanced data type domains, and read-only transactions, as well as improved support for SQL 92 schema introduced in version 7.3. MORE DATABASE PROGRAMMING OPTIONS Extending database server programming beyond the SQL standard, 7.4 adds multibyte regular expressions for text searching in Asian and Middle Eastern languages, polymorphic functions for more rapid development of custom data types and aggregates, and enhanced array data type handling for scientific databases. PostgreSQL is already the acknowledged leader in database customizability, and these new features widen the lead over other major RDBMSs. NEW ARRAY FEATURES Array data type support has been extended by introducing a host of new features. New functions and operators exist to support array operations such as insertion, concatenation and comparrison. In addition, array columns may now have btree indexes built on them, and they may be included in ORDER BY and DISTINCT clauses. See the release notes for more information. NEW NETWORK SUPPORT Now supports IPv6 Standard for TCP/IP networking, and Apple Computer's Rendezvous zero-configuration networking protocol. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 09:39, Robert Treat wrote: > Yes, you can :-) pg_autovacuum and better index space management should > be big improvements from a maintenance standpoint. Are you sure that pg_autovacuum is sufficiently refined to be worth boasting about? (By which I mean, "I don't think pg_autovacuum is sufficiently refined to be worth boasting about" -- my understanding that it was agreed that a client-side implementation was just meant as a prototype.) -Neil
On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 12:56, Neil Conway wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 09:39, Robert Treat wrote:
> > Yes, you can :-) pg_autovacuum and better index space management should
> > be big improvements from a maintenance standpoint.
>
> Are you sure that pg_autovacuum is sufficiently refined to be worth
> boasting about?
>
> (By which I mean, "I don't think pg_autovacuum is sufficiently refined
> to be worth boasting about" -- my understanding that it was agreed that
> a client-side implementation was just meant as a prototype.)
>
Well, that would bring up the whole question of how much "boasting" we
should ever do about contrib modules... I don't see anything in it's
documentation that would suggest I shouldn't run it as long as the known
issues don't cause me any heart ache. I do think it's refined enough to
suggest folks try it out for their production apps, I can see a lot of
folks that need to distribute a self maintaining database using it as is
and being quite happy. I would think that if it ever becomes integrated
into the main code, it wont be as a client side program, but unless
someone wants to put some disclaimers into CVS, I'll trust that it will
work for 7.4.
Robert Treat
--
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL