Thread: Guessing future postgresql features

Guessing future postgresql features

From
Rafael Martinez
Date:
Hello

I am preparing a presentation about postgresql for GoOpen2008 [1] in
Norway. I am trying to guess some of the 'main' new features we could
expect to see in the next versions of postgresql.

After reading different documents on Internet, I have this list which I
plan to include in my presentation. Does anyone disagree with it?  ;-)

* Auto-tuning / auto-configuration
* Easy update-in-place - 'pgmigrator'
* More SQL99 and SQL2003 features
* Update-in-place optimizations which enhance OLTP performance
* Auto partitioning / Dynamic partitioning
* External tables interfaces (SQL/MED compliant)
* More exotic datatypes
* More query optimizer improvements
* Elimination of vacuum
* Improve XML support
* Pre-parsing phase that converts non-ISO syntax to supported syntax.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[1] http://friprog.no/ez/index.php?/nor/English

regards,
-- Rafael Martinez, <r.m.guerrero@usit.uio.no>Center for Information Technology ServicesUniversity of Oslo, Norway
PGP Public Key: http://folk.uio.no/rafael/


Re: Guessing future postgresql features

From
Gregory Stark
Date:
"Rafael Martinez" <r.m.guerrero@usit.uio.no> writes:

> * Update-in-place optimizations which enhance OLTP performance
> * Improve XML support

These made it into 8.3. There could be more enhancements and more XML support
but you're probably looking at the stuff which already made 8.3.

> * Elimination of vacuum

Nobody's really proposed eliminating vacuum altogether but we're slowly
chipping away at it. One of the projects on the table for 8.4 would make it
much more efficient, especially for large tables which are partly static. So i
would say "faster vacuum with reduced impact" rather than "elimination"

> * Auto-tuning / auto-configuration
> * Easy update-in-place - 'pgmigrator'
> * Auto partitioning / Dynamic partitioning
> * External tables interfaces (SQL/MED compliant)
> * More exotic datatypes

All of these are on the table to one degree or another. But there's no
guarantees.

> * More SQL99 and SQL2003 features
> * More query optimizer improvements

These are pretty safe bets. I think Tom's already done some optimizer
improvements :)

> * Pre-parsing phase that converts non-ISO syntax to supported syntax.

I don't know what this refers to but it doesn't sound like the kind of thing
Postgres gets involved in.

--  Gregory Stark EnterpriseDB          http://www.enterprisedb.com Ask me about EnterpriseDB's RemoteDBA services!


Re: Guessing future postgresql features

From
"Jonah H. Harris"
Date:
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 7:02 PM, Rafael Martinez
<r.m.guerrero@usit.uio.no> wrote:
>  * Auto-tuning / auto-configuration

Perhaps.  Though, people have been saying they were going to do it
since 2001, and yet nothing substantial exists.

>  * Easy update-in-place - 'pgmigrator'

This should be upgrade-in-place, not update-in-place

>  * More SQL99 and SQL2003 features

Likely.

>  * Update-in-place optimizations which enhance OLTP performance

Postgres does not have update-in-place.  I would just say OLTP
performance enhancements.

>  * Auto partitioning / Dynamic partitioning

Likely.

>  * External tables interfaces (SQL/MED compliant)

It would be nice to see distributed/federated code integrated into the
core, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

>  * More exotic datatypes

Doubt it.

>  * More query optimizer improvements

Always

>  * Elimination of vacuum

I wish.

>  * Improve XML support

Probably.

>  * Pre-parsing phase that converts non-ISO syntax to supported syntax.

Doubtful.  That's a pgfoundry-type external project.

-- 
Jonah H. Harris, Sr. Software Architect | phone: 732.331.1324
EnterpriseDB Corporation | fax: 732.331.1301
499 Thornall Street, 2nd Floor | jonah.harris@enterprisedb.com
Edison, NJ 08837 | http://www.enterprisedb.com/