Обсуждение: Stefan Simkovics' paper and pgsql version 8.1

Hi,
I would like to use postgresql for a couple of database experiments
I've been thinking about.  I found Stefan Simkovic's paper
"Enhancement of the ANSI SQL Implementation of PostgreSQL."  It is a
great guide, although I'm wondering:
1. How relevant is this paper now (with release 8.1 in the works)?
2. Have there been any other papers like that more recently?

Secondly, I noticed that presentations from a 204 Oreilly conference
are not on posgresql's developers page.  Perhaps it would be a good
idea to put all these references together.  (I found them after a
thorough google search)

Actually I didn't even know about this bizgres business.  Perhaps the
front page needs updating too.

Lastly, I see that there is a new book "Power Postgresql" being worked
on by some people who's name I remember seeing on this list (I haven't
been a regular reader of this list for a long time now,
unfortunately).  Is that book going to be about developing the
database itself or using it to develop apps.?

Thanks!

On Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 05:44:14PM -0400, Shahbaz wrote:

> I would like to use postgresql for a couple of database experiments
> I've been thinking about.  I found Stefan Simkovic's paper
> "Enhancement of the ANSI SQL Implementation of PostgreSQL."  It is a
> great guide, although I'm wondering:
> 1. How relevant is this paper now (with release 8.1 in the works)?
> 2. Have there been any other papers like that more recently?

Wow, it's really outdated.  It starts from 6.3.2, and from the abstract
I gather that the work done was to add the HAVING clause and the
INTERSECT and EXCEPT set operations.  Those have been in Postgres from
before I started using it, which was 7.0.

A copy of the paper can be found here, for those interested

http://deim.etse.urv.es/ajuda/manuals/postgresql/internals.pdf

Interestingly, the paper is mentioned in the bibliography of the
official PostgreSQL documentation.  Apparently there's a good primer on
relational theory, SQL and PostgreSQL history.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[a]alvh.no-ip.org>)
Officer Krupke, what are we to do?
Gee, officer Krupke, Krup you! (West Side Story, "Gee, Officer Krupke")

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:
> Interestingly, the paper is mentioned in the bibliography of the
> official PostgreSQL documentation.  Apparently there's a good primer on
> relational theory, SQL and PostgreSQL history.

Most of that material is still in the source tree, though it seems it's
not being built into the official docs at the moment --- see
doc/src/sgml/sql.sgml

As a guide to hacking the backend, though, I wouldn't recommend it.
It's too outdated, and IIRC we had to rip out and redo large parts
of the original INTERSECT/EXCEPT patch.
        regards, tom lane

sql.sgml just seems to be an intro to sql/relational.  The Simkovics
paper is absolutely perfect for someone like me who wants to try some
experiments but can't commit too much time!  Does any one think time
is ripe for an update to the paper??? ;)  Actually I always wanted a
whole book on postgresql's internals.  There are several books on the
internals of Linux, why not postgresql?  At the minimum more colleges
students will be forced to go through it by their professors :)

On 8/6/05, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:
> > Interestingly, the paper is mentioned in the bibliography of the
> > official PostgreSQL documentation.  Apparently there's a good primer on
> > relational theory, SQL and PostgreSQL history.
>
> Most of that material is still in the source tree, though it seems it's
> not being built into the official docs at the moment --- see
> doc/src/sgml/sql.sgml
>
> As a guide to hacking the backend, though, I wouldn't recommend it.
> It's too outdated, and IIRC we had to rip out and redo large parts
> of the original INTERSECT/EXCEPT patch.
>
>                         regards, tom lane
>