Barry Lind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Tom Lane wrote: >> See binary cursors ...
> Generally that is not an option. It either requires users to code to > postgresql specific sql syntax, or requires the driver to do it > magically for them. Fair enough. I don't see anything much wrong with a GUC option that says "send SELECT output in binary format". This is not really a protocol issue since the ASCII and BINARY choices both exist at the protocol level --- there is nothing in the protocol saying binary data can only be returned by FETCH and not by SELECT. The main problem with it in present releases is that binary data is architecture-dependent and so encouraging its general use seems like a really bad idea. But if we manage to get send/receive conversion routines in there, most of that issue would go away. > The describe request is generally only > done once even though you may do multiple fetchs (unlike todays protocol > which includes the describe information on every fetch, even if you are > fetching one row at a time). I'm less than excited about changing that, because it breaks clients that don't want to remember past RowDescriptions (libpq being the front-line victim), and it guarantees loss-of-synchronization failures anytime the client misassociates rowdescription with query. In exchange for that, we get what exactly? Fetching one row at a time is *guaranteed* to be inefficient. The correct response if that bothers you is to fetch multiple rows at a time, not to make a less robust protocol. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly