Our documentation explains many details about commands, tools,
parameters in detail and with high accuracy. Nevertheless my impression
is that we neglect the 'big picture': why certain processes exist and
what their relation to each other is, summary of strategies,
visualization of key situations, ... . People with mature knowledge
don't miss this information because they know all about it. But for
beginners such explanations would be a great help. In the time before
GSoD 2019 we had similar discussions.
I plan to extend over time the part 'Tutorial' by an additional chapter
with an overview about key design decisions and basic features. The
typical audience should consist of persons with limited pre-knowledge in
database systems and some interest in PostgreSQL. In the attachment you
find a patch for the first sub-chapter. Subsequent sub-chapters should
be: MVCC, transactions, VACUUM, backup, replication, ... - mostly with
the focus on the PostgreSQL implementation and not on generic topics
like b-trees.
There is a predecessor of this patch:
https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/974e09b8-edf5-f38f-2fb5-a5875782ffc9%40purtz.de
. In the meanwhile its glossary-part is separated and commited. The new
patch contains two elements: textual descriptions and 4 figures. My
opinion concerning figures is set out in detail in the previous patch.
Kind regards, Jürgen Purtz