On 7/13/06, Tom Lane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This is really the whole issue right here: you want a monolithic "core" distribution. I cannot begin to list the number of things wrong with that approach, but suffice it to say that that's not the way PostgreSQL is moving.
I'm not going to argue at all and will gladly second Josh's statement. If the core doesn't want to include it, commercial companies (EnterpriseDB, Command Prompt, ...) and consultants will continue to do it for us. I mean, why should we make it easier for the end-user? Especially when we know there are certain components that practically every database user needs (ODBC, JDBC, etc.)
We are getting larger and we need to cater to having lots of sub-projects. A "core" distro containing everything that's reasonably popular will eventually collapse of its own weight.
I don't think we should include everything, and I belive that "collapse" is debatable. The important part is how the distro itself is managed. One can easily create a "core" distribution which includes PL/Java, ODBC, JDBC, etc. All of them don't have to reside in the same CVS tree, but they can be built and released together. I know because I've done it... and it's not that difficult. The hard part is actually deciding what to include and what not to. In general, we're talking about well established projects (PL/Java, JDBC, ODBC, ...) with a great track record; not someone's personal little proof-of-concept hack on pgfoundry. Like I said, this discussion always seems to come up and we always go back to saying "leave it to pgfoundry", "we'll promote pgfoundry", "pgfoundry is the best place for it". Yet, I haven't really seen any action to make pgfoundry any better or more well-known. I asked before, is pgfoundry/gborg even mentioned in the documentation?
The right way to proceed is what was mentioned in another message: work harder at educating packagers about which non-core projects are worth including in their packages.
OK, but who is going to do this? It certainly doesn't sound like any of us want to spend the time educating packagers as we're either working on our own things or for companies that already do package PostgreSQL. It just seems like we keep having lengthy recurring discussions that seem to go nowhere. No solution is ever reached, we just keep the status quo. Sure, risks either pay off or they don't, but it's just as easy to die from stagnation as well. I wish we could poll the actual end-users and see what their thoughts are, because we're sort of thinking in a vacuum here (no pun intended). I can readily accept being wrong; but every once in a while, we just need a little innovation. -- Jonah H. Harris, Software Architect | phone: 732.331.1300 EnterpriseDB Corporation | fax: 732.331.1301 33 Wood Ave S, 2nd Floor | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Iselin, New Jersey 08830 | http://www.enterprisedb.com/ ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
