On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 8:07 PM, David E. Wheeler <da...@kineticode.com> wrote: > Hackers, > > I've posted a [plan] to implement PGAN][], a CPAN for PostgreSQL extensions. > I've tried to closely follow the [CPAN philosophy][] to come up with a plan > that requires a minimum-work implementation that builds on the existing > PostgreSQL tools and the examples of the [CPAN][] and [JSAN][]. My hope is > that it's full of [JFDI][]! I would be very grateful for feedback and > suggestions.
Whilst the aim is a noble one, glossing over 'it won't work on Windows' which is by far our most popular platform these days seems incredibly short sighted, and liable to lead to an endless stream of 'why doesn't this work' questions. It also does the module authors no favours, by excluding 50%+ of their potential audience, and frankly, isn't the way this project generally works. We have discussed this sort of facility at previous developer meetings, and as I recall came to the conclusion that we need to have the ability to distribute pre-built binaries, not just source code as virtually no Windows users are ever going to have a build environment setup. Similarly, neither are Mac users, if they didn't install XCode. We also discussed extension management at the DBMS level, which I believe Dimitri was working on in his spare time. You should look at what he's been doing. Finally, don't write the client in Perl. Again, that's of no use to most Windows users. C will work on all platforms from the outset, with no dependencies required. Of course, the server side doesn't matter. -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers