Re: Release changes

Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> Here are the changes for 7.4.  I am looking for any improvements.  This
> will be adjusted as we move through beta.

Some notes on specific items:


Update /tmp socket files regularly to avoid their removal (Tom)

More specifically, update the file mod times.

New client/server protocol: faster, no username length limit, allow clean exit

"allow clean exit from failed COPY" is what's meant I think.  Not sure I'd
claim "faster", either.  There are a lot of other features you could mention
instead, such as allowing separation between SQL commands and data values.

Improve reverse index scan performance (Tom)

I have no idea what this entry is talking about --- I could not find anything
in the CVS log that seemed to match.

postgres --help-config now dumps server config variables (Tom)

This was not my work, I just applied it.  Please credit Aizaz Ahmed.

Prevent assign_session_authorization() from being confused by all-numeric user names (Tom)

This one is already in 7.3 patch releases, should not appear here.

Allow ORDER BY in FROM subqueries to be honored by outer queries (Tom)

"honored by"?  Better wording: Avoid redundant sort when order of a subquery result matches outer query's needs
Also, this belongs under Performance, I think.

Print key name in foreign-key violation messages (Dmitry Tkach)

Print key name and value ...

Allow subquery aggregates to reference upper query columns (?) (Tom)

Poorly phrased.  How about: Execute aggregates that reference outer-query values correctly per SQL spec

Allow dollar signs in identifiers, except as first character (Tom)

Why is this not together with the mention that dollar signs are *not* allowed
anymore in operator names?  It might also be worth pointing out that "x=$1"
works without spaces now.

Allow zero-column tables (Tom)

We allowed this already in 7.3, though I may have fixed a few more bugs.

Add pg_trigger.tgenabled to disable triggers? (Neil)

tgenabled was there already; the patch just caused it to be checked in more
places.

Have parser honor foreign-key constraints if created via ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN? (Tom)

This was fixed in a 7.3.* release, should not be listed here.

Improve DOMAIN automatic type casting (Tom)

I think Rod had something to do with that, too.

Object owners can allow grantees to grant privilege to others?

Better "Implement GRANT OPTION privileges, per SQL spec (Peter)"

Properly handle SCROLL with cursors, or report an error (Tom)

Someone else (Neil I think) did the bulk of the work for scrollable cursors.

Allow CLUSTER without tablename clusters all tables (Alvaro Herrera)

Better worded "Allow ... to cluster all tables"

Reduce memory used by COPY (Tom)

Better "Prevent possible memory leaks in COPY".  I don't think that patch
actually reduced normal memory consumption at all.

Syntax errors now reported as 'syntax error' rather than 'parse error' (Tom)

Should credit the bison guys ;-) ... that was their change not ours.  But
really I see no need to list it at all --- there are vastly more wording
changes in the error messages than just this one.

Have COMMENT ON DATABASE on non-local database generate a warning (Tom)

I think that was someone else's work ... Rod maybe?

New hostmast() function (Greg Wickham)

hostmask() I think you meant?

Allow polymorphic SQL functions (Tom, Joe)

I think Joe should get the bulk of the credit on this one.

Allow array concatenation with '||' and normal array comparisons (Joe)

You already mentioned array comparisons, three or four items before.

Allow PREPARE/bind of utility commands like FETCH and EXPLAIN (Tom)

Doesn't seem like that belongs under "data types".

Honor only DateStyle setting for date entry without a four-digit year (Greg)

Better "Allow only DateStyle-specified field order for dates that are not
in unambiguous ISO format (yyyy-mm-dd)"

'now' will no longer work as a default, use now() (change required for prepared statements) (Tom)

Maybe say "as a column default" there.

Assume NaN value to be larger than any other value in comparisons (Tom)

We did this already in most places.  Specify that the change is just to make
MIN() and MAX() agree with the rest of the operations.

Prevent PL/pgSQL crash when RETURN NEXT is used on a zero-row record (Tom)

Zero-column record maybe?  I don't know what a zero-row record is.

Change PL/pgSQL EXECUTE INTO to CREATE TABLE AS EXECUTE? (Peter)

That patch applied to the main parser's EXECUTE command, not plpgsql.
So this is in the wrong place as well as being wrong...

Allow polymorphic PL/pgSQL functions (Tom, Joe)
Improved compiled function caching mechanism in PL/pgSQL with full support for polymorphism (Tom, Joe)
Add new $0 parameter in PL/pgSQL representing the function's actual return type (Tom, Joe)

Again, Joe gets the bulk of the credit on all three of these (and all the
credit for $0, I didn't do anything there)

New '\set autocommit off' capability (Tom)

It's \set AUTOCOMMIT, might as well get the case right.

New '\set verbosity' to control error detail (Tom)

Likewise, \set VERBOSITY

Allow control SSL negotiation with sslmode values "disable", "allow",  "Prefer", and "require" (Jon Jensen)

There should be a mention of the new pg_hba.conf hostnossl keyword somewhere
too (though not under libpq)

Allow OpenBSD to use local indent credentials (William Ahern)

local ident credentials?

Allow read-only query plans (Tom)

Better "Make query plan trees read-only to executor"
        regards, tom lane