My outlook is that it isn't a lot of _new_ things that you couldn't do before, but rather improvements of existing functionality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Lane wrote: > I'm not clear on why there's all this doom and gloom about how 8.2 will > be "merely" a performance-oriented release, with few new features, eg > http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-07/msg00111.php > > Certainly there's been a ton of effort spent on high-end performance > issues. But a quick troll through the CVS logs shows a fair number of > features that could be considered killer must-have things by their > respective target audiences: > > multi-row VALUES, not only for INSERT but everywhere SELECT is allowed > pg_dump multiple -n and -t options, regex patterns for object names > multi-argument aggregates, including SQL2003-standard statistical aggregates > fully configurable timezone abbreviations (no more 'australian_timezones' > hack) > allow full zic timezone names in datetime input values > support comparisons like "if row(new.*) is distinct from row(old.*)" > DROP ... IF EXISTS > numerous tsearch2 improvements, eg thesaurus > GIN index opclass > GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE > support SSL Certificate Revocation List (CRL) files > plpython supports named parameters, composite-type results, more result-set > options > plperl prepared queries > domain constraint checks are now applied everywhere > better psql multiline command handling > error cursor position displayed for many parse-analysis errors > standard_conforming_strings can be turned on (HUGE deal for some people) > initdb and pg_ctl can safely start from an admin account on Windows > display multiline values nicely in psql > support SQL-compliant row comparisons; they can be indexscan quals > DROP OWNED, REASSIGN OWNED for dealing with removal of a user > null elements in arrays > > There are also some commits that are "mere" performance tweaks, and yet > we should not understate their importance because they could make the > difference between usability and non-usability in many applications: > > lazy vacuums are ignored by other processes; improves behavior of concurrent > vacuums > add index and table storage options (currently only FILLFACTOR) > stats_command_string overhead reduced to near zero, now on by default > reduce locking involved in DATABASE commands, eg CREATE DATABASE no longer > blocks incoming connections > constraint exclusion works for UPDATE and DELETE > constraint exclusion works for UNION ALL views, not only inheritance trees > planner can rearrange join order for many common OUTER JOIN scenarios > > And that's not counting some pretty significant submitted-but-not-yet- > reviewed patches (sure, some of these may get rejected, but they're all > open possibilities today): > > online index builds > bitmap index AM > updatable views > PL plugin patch (plpgsql debugger infrastructure) > restartable recovery (allow checkpoints for a hot-standby server) > INSERT/UPDATE RETURNING > > Not that there's anything wrong with a performance-oriented release > ... but if you think that 8.2 is short on features, you'd better get > ready to be disappointed by every future release. There's not all > that much stuff left to do in terms of raw language "features". > (Of course the SQL committee keeps inventing a ton of new stuff every > few years, but how much of that do you really care about?) > > regards, tom lane > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq -- Bruce Momjian [EMAIL PROTECTED] EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. + ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
