On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Kurt Harriman <harriman@acm.org> wrote:
> On 12/16/2009 7:10 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
>>
>> the project policy is to not require any compiler features not found
>
>> in C89.
>
> Is there somewhere a compendium of such policies which
> fledgling hackers should consult to avoid embarrassment?
Well the best way to avoid embarrassment is to just not be
embarrassed. I don't think anyone will think ill of you for
suggesting something that turns out not to be where the project wants
to go, as long as you're not too dogmatic about it.
This particular point is mentioned in the documentation:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/install-requirements.html
The rest of chapter 15 is worth a read, too.
I do think your basic point is well-taken, though. There are a lot of
details about how we do things that I have had to learn through
osmosis, and maybe if I can figure out what they all are, I'll try to
write them down somewhere, if someone else hasn't done it already.
...Robert