On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>> In general, we have always regretted it in the past when we chose to
>> slip a release waiting for a specific feature...
>
> I don't recall such a time - though perhaps the last time it happened
> was before I was so heavily involved in the release process (ie. 7.x).
> What were the reasons for regretting it?
I seem to recall us deferring 8.1 (was it 8.1?) for a while on the
basis that we were waiting for [something I don't recall offhand].
The feature that we were *hoping* to get wound up dropped on the floor
because it just wasn't ready, even *with* the extra time.
A good reason to regret the slippage would be if that slippage didn't
allow bringing in the new feature.
That does seem pretty relevant here: it sure would be a shame if we
put off 8.4 because we *hoped* extra time would allow us to get hot
standby into place, only to find that it wasn't ready because it
*really* Wasn't Ready. We would have several things to regret:
Irrespective of the state of Hot Standby, we would have the following regrets:
- 8.4 would be put off, which is of nonzero cost
- 8.5 would also be put off
- Features deferred for 8.5 would be put off further
- Developers working on features other than Hot Standby have the
fruits of their efforts deferred
If Hot Standby turns out to be "8.4-worthy", then there is an anti-regret:
- We get Hot Standby in 8.4
On the other hand, if Hot Standby turns out to *not* be ready enough,
then add the further regret:
- We waited, and deferred more functionality to 8.5, without any attendant gain
Each one of the "regrets" is fairly material. I'm not arguing (at the
moment) against taking time to put in Hot Standby, but there is
certainly grist available to make that argument.
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