Forum OpenACS Q&A: PostgreSQL enhancements

Posted by Roberto Mello on 04/19/00 07:29 AM

Couldn't we lobby for some company (or companies) to fund portions of
Postgres to get more features out faster ? How much is ACS/pg (ACS for
that matters) worth ? How much can it save a company, especially
starting web businesses ?

    Have the PG developers thought about something like that ? How about
sourcexchange or those other open source mechanisms ?

    I don't know if I am saying something crazy here, but I was
astonished when Don mentioned that OUTER JOINS have been in the oven
for 16 months in PostgreSQL and are not out yet (btw, when is 7.1
coming out ?).

    I like PostgreSQL and I want to see it go further and further, to the
point where it remains the "best open source RDBMS" and better than
commercial implementations.

    What can we do to help ?

2: Response to PostgreSQL enhancements (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 04/19/00 02:46 PM

I don't want to say a heck of a lot in a public forum, where anything critical I say might be misunderstood by any PG developers who wander by to see what we're up to (Lamar and I keep touting the ACS and AOLserver to those folks).

They have organized Postgres, Inc. I don't think the model they've chosen is the correct one. Apache Foundation and similar approaches make more sense to me. Postgres, Inc also has done some things that might be described as tacky. Banner ads on their forum archives, for instance. That's kind of a trailer-trash approach to funding Open Source software, IMO. They've not been effective in getting money in the door and out to developers in the form of contracts, etc.

7.1 is scheduled for late summer, but personally I don't think it will happen unless the list of stuff to be done is pared down, or some way to speed the development process.

Beyond that, yesterday I raised the subject privately with Ben, and at my prodding Brent asked Lars a question regarding any interest aD might have in helping fund PG development (and did so in a very nicely-worded way. Good job, Brent). At the moment, all I want to say is that speeding PG development's on my mind, but I don't have any answers.

3: Response to PostgreSQL enhancements (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Adida on 04/19/00 10:58 PM

All good points. Anyone up for building an ACS/pg-backed SourceXchange for all ACS/pg related issues? Would be useful for new modules, Postgres enhancements, etc... Plus I think it's much more useful to have specific communities around a certain product or item (e.g. ACS/pg) rather than around a certain function (e.g. getting open-source developers and funders together).

4: Response to PostgreSQL enhancements (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 04/20/00 04:06 AM

Couldn't we use something like sourcexchange.com which is already done ? Maybe I am not grasping what you're trying to say Ben.

5: Response to PostgreSQL enhancements (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Adida on 04/20/00 07:49 PM

We could try to use SourceXchange, sure. I feel that the focus on "any open-source project" makes it a hard-to-find system. Although we could just point to it from our system. I don't feel strongly either way, I just don't think the SourceXchange model works on such a large scale, that it's better to have a bunch of small dev communities.