Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2015 01:57:22 -0400
From: Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>
To: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
Cc: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>,
 Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>,
 Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>,
 "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>,
 pgsql-core <pgsql-core@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: Restore-reliability mode
Message-ID: <20150610055722.GB218346@tornado.leadboat.com>
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On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 04:18:37PM +0200, Andres Freund wrote:
> On 2015-06-03 09:50:49 -0400, Noah Misch wrote:
> > Second, I would define the subject matter as "bug fixes, testing and
> > review", not "restructuring, testing and review."  Different code
> > structures are clearest to different hackers.  Restructuring, on
> > average, adds bugs even more quickly than feature development adds
> > them.
> 
> I can't agree with this. While I agree with not doing large
> restructuring for 9.5, I think we can't affort not to refactor for
> clarity, even if that introduces bugs. Noticeable parts of our code have
> to frequently be modified for new features and are badly structured at
> the same time. While restructuring will may temporarily increase the
> number of bugs in the short term, it'll decrease the number of bugs long
> term while increasing the number of potential contributors and new
> features.  That's obviously not to say we should just refactor for the
> sake of it.

I think I agree with everything after your first sentence.  I liked your
specific proposal to split StartupXLOG(), but making broad-appeal
restructuring proposals is hard.  I doubt we would get good results by casting
a wide net for restructuring ideas.  Automated testing has a lower barrier to
entry and is far less liable to make things worse instead of better.  I can
hope for good results from a TestSuiteFest, but not from a RestructureFest.
That said, if folks initiate compelling restructure proposals, we should be
willing to risk bugs from them like we risk bugs to acquire new features.


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