Date: Thu, 16 May 2019 21:32:55 -0400
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
Cc: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>,
	Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com>,
	Amit Langote <Langote_Amit_f8@lab.ntt.co.jp>,
	David Rowley <david.rowley@2ndquadrant.com>,
	"Jonathan S. Katz" <jkatz@postgresql.org>,
	PostgreSQL Advocacy <pgsql-advocacy@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: PostgreSQL 12: Feature Highlights
Message-ID: <20190517013255.bera5dtuii376lae@momjian.us>
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On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 05:05:13PM -0700, Peter Geoghegan wrote:
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 4:52 PM Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz> wrote:
> > +1.  Another thing which may matter is that if some people do not see
> > some improvements they were expecting then they can come back to pg13
> > and help around with having these added.  Things are never going to be
> > perfect for all users, and it makes little sense to make it sound like
> > things are actually perfect.
> 
> Speaking of imperfections: it is well known that most performance
> enhancements have the potential to hurt certain workloads in order to
> help others. Maybe that was explicitly considered to be a good
> trade-off when the feature went in, and maybe that was the right
> decision at the time, but more often it was something that was simply
> overlooked. There is value in leaving information that helps users
> discover where a problem may have been introduced -- they can tell us
> about it, and we can fix it.
> 
> I myself sometimes look through the release notes in an effort to spot
> something that might have had undesirable side-effects, especially in
> areas of the code that I am less knowledgeable about, or have only a
> vague recollection of. Sometimes that is a reasonable starting point.

The release notes are written for the _average_ reader.  The commits are
there as comments and making them more visible would be a nice
improvement.

We have already adjusted the partition item, and the btree item.  If
there is more detail people want, I suggest you post something to the
hackers list and we will see if can be added in a consistent way.  You
must also get agreement that the rules I am using need to be adjusted so
all future release notes will have that consistency.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

+ As you are, so once was I.  As I am, so you will be. +
+                      Ancient Roman grave inscription +