On Fri, 2010-05-07 at 18:26 -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> > Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> >> [ argues, in effect, for starting 9.1 development right now ]
> >
> > I can't stop you from spending your time as you please. My development
> > time for at least the next month or two is going to be spent on
> > code-reading the HS/SR code and fixing bugs as they come in. I don't
> > foresee having any time to work on my own 9.1 projects, let alone
> > review anyone else's.
>
> I'm really making an effort to be a "good" community member. There
> are a couple of reasons I don't think that I can spend ALL of my PG
> time over the next few months on release prep:
>
> 1. I'm not really sure what I would spend that much time doing.
> 2. My employer has things they want done for 9.1.
>
> That having been said, I am perfectly happy to devote a substantial
> amount of time to helping with 9.0, but I think it needs a little more
> organization to make it productive. I am not the first person to make
> this observation and I'm sure I won't be the last.
I've often faced the issue you describe. I think its difficult for
everybody to help at this stage. In many ways it is a serialization and
it's good that Tom holds the gate tighter than normal at this point.
The main thing I've tried to do was map out plans for my time so you
know which features will be worked on, in which order. Most of that
planning needs to happen quietly because its not really possible to say
"I intend to work on X" without it becoming a discussion about what X
should look like, which is distracting to the release process.
Having said that, I've often found that discussing things off-list with
other hackers leads to later grief. I think Bruce wrote a good piece on
that once. What 2 or 3 people think is a good way forwards is seldom
shared by others, and many ideas fall foul of complete blockers, or
simply easier or better ideas.
Last year we both worked on the same issues. I'd ask that if you intend
to work on anything you know myself or other hackers are working on,
please ask so we can avoid duplicating any efforts.
-- Simon Riggs www.2ndQuadrant.com