[HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread David Fetter
Folks,

While it's interesting to note, in an historical sense, that a
platform most recently updated when 1999 was still in the future, I
think it's time we did a little pruning.

We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being the
first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.

What say?

Cheers,
David.
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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Josh Berkus
On 9/22/10 1:17 PM, David Fetter wrote:
 While it's interesting to note, in an historical sense, that a
 platform most recently updated when 1999 was still in the future, I
 think it's time we did a little pruning.

It is unclear to me what problem you're trying to solve.

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Kenneth Marshall
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 01:17:54PM -0700, David Fetter wrote:
 Folks,
 
 While it's interesting to note, in an historical sense, that a
 platform most recently updated when 1999 was still in the future, I
 think it's time we did a little pruning.
 
 We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being the
 first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.
 
 What say?
 
 Cheers,
 David.

Given the amount of trouble I had to get a git for a Solaris 8
system, I am not too keen on this definition for platform. PostgreSQL
runs very well on the same system, along with SVN and CVS.

Cheers,
Ken

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Joshua D. Drake
On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 13:17 -0700, David Fetter wrote:
 Folks,
 
 While it's interesting to note, in an historical sense, that a
 platform most recently updated when 1999 was still in the future, I
 think it's time we did a little pruning.
 
 We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being the
 first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.
 
 What say?
 

I say that Bruce got Git to run on BSD/OS 4 or something like that. I
suggest that it won't matter what we say :P

JD

 Cheers,
 David.
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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Tom Lane
David Fetter da...@fetter.org writes:
 We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being the
 first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.

Sounds like allowing the tail to wag the dog.

regards, tom lane

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Robert Haas
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 4:17 PM, David Fetter da...@fetter.org wrote:
 What say?

No.  :-)

I'd be fine with dropping support for ancient platforms if it lets us
do something cool that we can't otherwise do, but there's no value in
doing it just because we can.

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Andrew Dunstan



On 09/22/2010 04:38 PM, Robert Haas wrote:

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 4:17 PM, David Fetterda...@fetter.org  wrote:

What say?

No.  :-)

I'd be fine with dropping support for ancient platforms if it lets us
do something cool that we can't otherwise do, but there's no value in
doing it just because we can.



Couldn't have said it better.

cheers

andrew

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread David Fetter
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 04:28:04PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
 David Fetter da...@fetter.org writes:
  We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being
  the first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.
 
 Sounds like allowing the tail to wag the dog.

Runs git is actually not a bad proxy for has modern developer
tools.

This would be the first, as I mentioned, of a list of base functional
requirements.

Cheers,
David.
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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Joshua D. Drake
On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 13:58 -0700, David Fetter wrote:
 On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 04:28:04PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
  David Fetter da...@fetter.org writes:
   We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being
   the first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.
  
  Sounds like allowing the tail to wag the dog.
 
 Runs git is actually not a bad proxy for has modern developer
 tools.
 
 This would be the first, as I mentioned, of a list of base functional
 requirements.

David,

Perhaps you could suggest some more specific ideas of your proposal? I
mean I am with you on the idea of reducing our supported platforms. I
see no reason to support

Solaris 9
NetBSD in any form
FreeBSD 6
Any Linux not supported by its own community (e.g; FC9)
Irix
 SCO

Note: I am not actually advocating this as much as stating my own
personal opinion.

Joshua D. Drake

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread David Fetter
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 02:02:18PM -0700, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
 On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 13:58 -0700, David Fetter wrote:
  On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 04:28:04PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
   David Fetter da...@fetter.org writes:
We can start by supporting only platforms git runs on, this being
the first in what I'd picture as a set of base requirements.
   
   Sounds like allowing the tail to wag the dog.
  
  Runs git is actually not a bad proxy for has modern developer
  tools.
  
  This would be the first, as I mentioned, of a list of base functional
  requirements.
 
 David,
 
 Perhaps you could suggest some more specific ideas of your proposal? I
 mean I am with you on the idea of reducing our supported platforms. I
 see no reason to support
 
 Solaris 9
 NetBSD in any form
 FreeBSD 6
 Any Linux not supported by its own community (e.g; FC9)
 Irix
  SCO
 
 Note: I am not actually advocating this as much as stating my own
 personal opinion.
 
 Joshua D. Drake

It's not about naming platforms for exclusion.  It's about requiring
functionalities for *in*clusion.

Cheers,
David.
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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Joshua D. Drake
On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 14:08 -0700, David Fetter wrote:

 It's not about naming platforms for exclusion.  It's about requiring
 functionalities for *in*clusion.

I repeat:

 Perhaps you could suggest some more specific ideas of your proposal?

I mean, it took us forever to require Perl 5.8.

Joshua D. Drake

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread David E. Wheeler
On Sep 22, 2010, at 2:08 PM, David Fetter wrote:

 It's not about naming platforms for exclusion.  It's about requiring
 functionalities for *in*clusion.

Passes all tests.

David


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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Tom Lane
Joshua D. Drake j...@commandprompt.com writes:
 I mean, it took us forever to require Perl 5.8.

... and we still make a point of not having a hard requirement for
that.  If you don't want plperl, you can build from a tarball with
no perl at all.

Given the project history, I can't see us turning a dependency
we just added this week into a hard requirement anytime soon.

Now having said that, if you define supported platform to mean
gets tested on the buildfarm, we do require Perl.  And CVS,
which will soon get replaced by a requirement for Git.  But I'm
not going to tell someone to get lost if they file a portability
bug report without having set up a buildfarm animal first.

regards, tom lane

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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread David Fetter
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 06:03:16PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
 Joshua D. Drake j...@commandprompt.com writes:
  I mean, it took us forever to require Perl 5.8.
 
 ... and we still make a point of not having a hard requirement for
 that.  If you don't want plperl, you can build from a tarball with
 no perl at all.
 
 Given the project history, I can't see us turning a dependency we
 just added this week into a hard requirement anytime soon.
 
 Now having said that, if you define supported platform to mean
 gets tested on the buildfarm, we do require Perl.  And CVS, which
 will soon get replaced by a requirement for Git.  But I'm not going
 to tell someone to get lost if they file a portability bug report
 without having set up a buildfarm animal first.

I agree that get lost is not a reasonable first reaction, but as
with platforms like AIX, It would help us enormously for you to put
up a buildfarm animal with your development environment on it isn't.

Cheers,
David.
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Re: [HACKERS] Another Modest Proposal: Platforms

2010-09-22 Thread Robert Haas
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 6:56 PM, David Fetter da...@fetter.org wrote:
 On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 06:03:16PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
 Joshua D. Drake j...@commandprompt.com writes:
  I mean, it took us forever to require Perl 5.8.

 ... and we still make a point of not having a hard requirement for
 that.  If you don't want plperl, you can build from a tarball with
 no perl at all.

 Given the project history, I can't see us turning a dependency we
 just added this week into a hard requirement anytime soon.

 Now having said that, if you define supported platform to mean
 gets tested on the buildfarm, we do require Perl.  And CVS, which
 will soon get replaced by a requirement for Git.  But I'm not going
 to tell someone to get lost if they file a portability bug report
 without having set up a buildfarm animal first.

 I agree that get lost is not a reasonable first reaction, but as
 with platforms like AIX, It would help us enormously for you to put
 up a buildfarm animal with your development environment on it isn't.

I feel like we do that already, as the occasion demands... so this
isn't really a change in policy from that point of view.

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