> > Because we do not want the dba to decide which statistics are optimal,
> > there should probably be an analyze helper application that is invoked
> > with "vacuum analyze database optimal" or some such, that also decides
> > whether a table was sufficiently altered to justify new stats gathering
> > or vacuum.
>
> And on what are you going to base "sufficiently altered"?
Probably current table size vs table size in statistics and maybe timestamp
when statistics were last updated. Good would also be the active row count, but
we don't have cheap access to the current value.
The point is, that if the combined effort of all "hackers" (with the help of
some large scale users) cannot come to a more or less generally adequate answer,
the field dba most certainly won't eighter.
Andreas