Tom Lane wrote: > Michael Ansley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Remember also that the GiST library has been integrated into PG, (my brother > > is doing some thesis workon that at the moment), > > Yeah? Does it still work? You bet. One would otherwise be hearing from me. I depend on it quite heavily and I am checking with almost every release. I am now current with 7.0.2 -- this time it required some change, although not in the c code. And that's pretty amazing: I was only screwed once since postgres95 -- by a beta version I don't remember now; then I complained and the problem was fixed. I don't even know whom I owe thanks for that. > Since the GIST code is not tested by any standard regress test, and is > so poorly documented that hardly anyone can be using it, I've always > assumed that it is probably suffering from a severe case of bit-rot. > > I'd love to see someone contribute documentation and regression test > cases for it --- it's a great feature, if it works. The bit rot fortunately did not happen, but the documentation I promised Bruce many months ago is still "in the works" -- meaning, something interfered and I haven't had a chance to start. Like a friend of mine muses all the time, "Promise doesn't mean marriage". Boy, do I feel guilty. It's a bit better with the testing. I am not sure how to test the GiST directly, but I have adapted the current version of regression tests for the data types that depend on it. One can find them in my contrib directory, under test/ (again, it's http://wit.mcs.anl.gov/~selkovjr/pg_extensions/contrib.tgz) It would be nice if at least one of the GiST types became a built-in (that would provide for a more intensive testing), but I can also think of the contrib code being (optionally) included into the main build and regression test trees. The top-level makefile can have a couple of special targets to build and test the contribs. I believe my version of the tests can be a useful example to other contributors whose code is already in the source tree. --Gene
