Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 11:24 PM, Joseph Adams
> <joeyadams3.14159@gmail.com> wrote:
>> My reasoning for "It should be built-in" is:
>> �* It would be nice to have a built-in serialization format that's
>> available by default.
>> �* It might be a little faster because it doesn't have to link to an
>> external library.
> I don't think either of these reasons is valid.
FWIW, our track record with relying on external libraries has been less
than great --- "upstream will maintain it" sounds good but has fallen
over with respect to both the regex engine and the snowball stemmers,
to take two examples. And libxml2 has been nothing but a source of pain.
If this is going to end up being one fairly small C file implementing
a spec that is not a moving target, I'd vote against depending on an
external library instead, no matter how spiffy and license-compatible
the external library might be.
regards, tom lane