8.4 release notes proof reading 1/2

Bruce,

Here is the second set of comments:

- pg_hba.conf: it seems to me the format has changed which may break
existing pg_hba.conf (it broke the default one of the RPM packaging).
We should make it very visible as the format hasn't changed for a
while. I suppose we'll put it at the top but I just don't want us to
forget it so I mention it here.

- "Allow recovery.conf boolean variables to take the same range of
string alues as postgresql.conf (Bruce)" -> s/alues/values/
- "Add support for Unicode sting and identifier specifications using
code points, e.g. U&'d\0061t\+000061' (Peter)" -> s/sting/string/
- "Allow CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW to add columns to the _end_ of the
view" -> formatting problem with the underscores?
- "Previously EXPLAIN VERBOSE output an internal representation of the
query plan" -> s/output/outputs/ ?
- "Autovacuum options uses to be stored in a system table. " -> s/uses/used/ ?
- "Allows dumps to fail if unable to acquire shared table within the
specified amount of time. " -> shared lock instead of shared table?
- "Add configure option --disable-float4-byval to use the old
behavior. tgl Pass float8 and int8 by value in the server where
possible (Zoltan Boszormenyi) " -> tgl + there's a carriage return
missing (and a bullet)
- "Add -M (query mode) to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)"
->Itagaki san's name inconsistent with other mentions of his name

I can provide a patch for all this if needed. I thought you'd prefer
validate the changes.

Really nice work and really interesting reading.

Thanks.

--
Guillaume

Guillaume Smet wrote:

Hi,

Just to warn people that I'm making a comprehensive proof reading of
the release notes.

Here are the first comments:

- "This was available previously via a configure
--enable-integer-datetimes (Neil Conway)" -> I don't think we need
Neil's name in the details
- "New semi- and ansi-joins (Tom)" -> s/ansi/anti/
- "While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins, anti-joins are a
new capability for NOT IN and NOT EXIST clauses (Tom) This improves
optimization possibilities." -> remove the "(Tom)", s/EXIST/EXISTS/
- "IN and EXISTs now provide similar performance for equivalent
clauses. " -> s/EXISTs/EXISTS/

Above fixed.

- "A new constraint_exclusion setting, "partition", which matches this
behavior." -> this sentence is weird

Yep, new wording:

A new constraint_exclusion setting, "partition", was added to match this
behavior.

- "Move that server statistics file into the subdirectory pg_stat_tmp"
-> s/that/the/ ? I think this item can be grouped with the following
one "Allow the location of the new pg_stat_tmp to be configured via
the stats_temp_directory setting"

Agreed, new merged text:

<listitem>
<para>
Move the server statistics file into the subdirectory pg_stat_tmp
and allow its location to be specified via stats_temp_directory (Magnus)
</para>

<para>
This allows the statistics file to be placed in a RAM-resident
directory to reduce I/O requirements. On startup/shutdown, the
file is copied to the top-level $PGDATA directory so it is preserved
between restarts.
</para>
</listitem>

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

Guillaume Smet wrote:

Bruce,

Here is the second set of comments:

- pg_hba.conf: it seems to me the format has changed which may break
existing pg_hba.conf (it broke the default one of the RPM packaging).
We should make it very visible as the format hasn't changed for a
while. I suppose we'll put it at the top but I just don't want us to
forget it so I mention it here.

Well we have this line:

pg_hba.conf also has extensive changes related to
migration. bjm: add markup

Do we need more?

- "Allow recovery.conf boolean variables to take the same range of
string alues as postgresql.conf (Bruce)" -> s/alues/values/
- "Add support for Unicode sting and identifier specifications using
code points, e.g. U&'d\0061t\+000061' (Peter)" -> s/sting/string/

Above fixed.

- "Allow CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW to add columns to the _end_ of the
view" -> formatting problem with the underscores?

I added markup, <emphasis>.

- "Previously EXPLAIN VERBOSE output an internal representation of the
query plan" -> s/output/outputs/ ?

The existing wording seems correct.

- "Autovacuum options uses to be stored in a system table. " -> s/uses/used/ ?
- "Allows dumps to fail if unable to acquire shared table within the
specified amount of time. " -> shared lock instead of shared table?
- "Add configure option --disable-float4-byval to use the old
behavior. tgl Pass float8 and int8 by value in the server where
possible (Zoltan Boszormenyi) " -> tgl + there's a carriage return
missing (and a bullet)
- "Add -M (query mode) to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)"
->Itagaki san's name inconsistent with other mentions of his name

Above all fixed, thanks.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 1:44 AM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

- "Previously EXPLAIN VERBOSE output an internal representation of the
query plan" -> s/output/outputs/ ?

The existing wording seems correct.

I think Bruce's phrasing was in the past tense. It's a bit weird
because the verb form of "output" is a relatively recent invention and
the past tense isn't well settled. Dictionaries list both "outputted"
and "output" as past tense forms. Personally I think Bruce's "output"
sounds better than the alternative "outputted".

Perhaps "had output" would be clearer?

--
greg

Greg Stark wrote:

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 1:44 AM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

- "Previously EXPLAIN VERBOSE output an internal representation of the
query plan" -> s/output/outputs/ ?

The existing wording seems correct.

I think Bruce's phrasing was in the past tense. It's a bit weird
because the verb form of "output" is a relatively recent invention and
the past tense isn't well settled. Dictionaries list both "outputted"
and "output" as past tense forms. Personally I think Bruce's "output"
sounds better than the alternative "outputted".

Perhaps "had output" would be clearer?

Excellent idea; done.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:44 AM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

Guillaume Smet wrote:

- "Add -M (query mode) to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)"
->Itagaki san's name inconsistent with other mentions of his name

Above all fixed, thanks.

I think you fixed this one the wrong way.

It should be s/ITAGAKI Takahiro/Takahiro Itagaki/g, shouldn't it?

--
Guillaume

"Guillaume" == Guillaume Smet <guillaume.smet@gmail.com> writes:

Guillaume> - "While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins,
Guillaume> anti-joins are a new capability for NOT IN and NOT EXIST
Guillaume> clauses (Tom) This improves optimization possibilities."
Guillaume> -> remove the "(Tom)", s/EXIST/EXISTS/

Also s/NOT IN and // (anti-joins are not used for NOT IN due to the
awkward semantics of nulls). Should possibly also mention the fact that
some outer joins can be planned as anti-joins too.

--
Andrew (irc:RhodiumToad)

Andrew Gierth wrote:

"Guillaume" == Guillaume Smet <guillaume.smet@gmail.com> writes:

Guillaume> - "While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins,
Guillaume> anti-joins are a new capability for NOT IN and NOT EXIST
Guillaume> clauses (Tom) This improves optimization possibilities."
Guillaume> -> remove the "(Tom)", s/EXIST/EXISTS/

Also s/NOT IN and // (anti-joins are not used for NOT IN due to the
awkward semantics of nulls). Should possibly also mention the fact that
some outer joins can be planned as anti-joins too.

Thanks, text updated:

While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins, anti-joins
are a new capability for NOT EXISTS clauses (Tom) This improves
optimization possibilities.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Mar 27, 2009, at 6:40 PM, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Thanks, text updated:

While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins, anti-joins
are a new capability for NOT EXISTS clauses (Tom) This improves
optimization possibilities.

I'm not enough of a relational algebra geek to really understand what
that means. Will there be a link or something to some documentation or
even, *gasp*, a blog entry explaining what this means and why it's
important?

Thanks,

David

David E. Wheeler wrote:

On Mar 27, 2009, at 6:40 PM, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Thanks, text updated:

While semi-joins merely replace existing IN joins, anti-joins
are a new capability for NOT EXISTS clauses (Tom) This improves
optimization possibilities.

I'm not enough of a relational algebra geek to really understand what
that means. Will there be a link or something to some documentation or
even, *gasp*, a blog entry explaining what this means and why it's
important?

Uh, not really; the optimizer stuff is usually quite vague and Tom
might end update removing it once he goes over the release note anyway
(he has in the past). I documented it because it is a user-visible
change, I think, becuase it might show up in EXPLAIN.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

Guillaume Smet wrote:

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:44 AM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

Guillaume Smet wrote:

- "Add -M (query mode) to /contrib/pgbench (ITAGAKI Takahiro)"
->Itagaki san's name inconsistent with other mentions of his name

Above all fixed, thanks.

I think you fixed this one the wrong way.

It should be s/ITAGAKI Takahiro/Takahiro Itagaki/g, shouldn't it?

Based on mentions of his name in previous release notes, you are
correct; change committed.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

Based on mentions of his name in previous release notes, you are
correct; change committed.

Thanks Bruce.

--
Guillaume

Bruce,

I drafted a list of major features for the release notes:

http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/84ReleaseDraft#List_of_Major_Features_for_release_notes

See if that works for you.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
www.pgexperts.com

Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote:

I drafted a list of major features for the release notes:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/84ReleaseDraft#List_of_Major_Features_for_release_notes

s/pg_stat_functions/pg_stat_user_functions/g

BTW, why the function was named pg_stat_*user*_functions ?
even though there are no 'all' and 'sys' versions.

Regards,
---
ITAGAKI Takahiro
NTT Open Source Software Center

Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:

Bruce,
I drafted a list of major features for the release notes:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/84ReleaseDraft#List_of_Major_Features_for_release_notes
See if that works for you.

I did a small amount of polishing of some of those descriptions.

regards, tom lane

Itagaki Takahiro <itagaki.takahiro@oss.ntt.co.jp> writes:

BTW, why the function was named pg_stat_*user*_functions ?
even though there are no 'all' and 'sys' versions.

Well, it ignores built-in functions. Naming the view that way seems
like good future-proofing to me --- maybe someday we'll think of a
sufficiently low-overhead way to offer stats for system functions too.

regards, tom lane