To: "Gordan Bobic" <gordan@freeuk.com>
cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Re: Data type for storing images? 
In-reply-to: <000e01c0aba1$0438f5a0$800010ac@localdomain> 
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Comments: In-reply-to "Gordan Bobic" <gordan@freeuk.com>
	message dated "Tue, 13 Mar 2001 09:35:59 +0000"
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:25:56 -0500
Message-ID: <20505.984507956@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

"Gordan Bobic" <gordan@freeuk.com> writes:
> More to the point, what would be a reason for not using bytea to
> replace BLOBs completely?

The fact that encoding/decoding is a pain in the neck :-(.  The
lo_read/lo_write interfaces are a relatively convenient way to send
and receive binary data, but the ASCII input-output representation that
bytea uses is not.

We really need some binary-friendly data transmission interface like
lo_read/lo_write for bytea fields before they will be ready to take over
the world.  I think Jan has some ideas about how to do that, but it's
not done yet.

			regards, tom lane