Message-ID: <4CB91BDD.2010809@2ndquadrant.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:28:29 -0400
From: Greg Smith <greg@2ndquadrant.com>
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To: Jesper Krogh <jesper@krogh.cc>
CC: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, mark <dvlhntr@gmail.com>,
	Neil Whelchel <neil.whelchel@gmail.com>, pgsql-performance@postgresql.org,
	"Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com>
Subject: Re: Slow count(*) again...
References: <201010091626.18636.neil.whelchel@gmail.com>
	<201010130138.39893.neil.whelchel@gmail.com>
	<4CB572CF.4080709@catalyst.net.nz>
	<201010130316.12922.neil.whelchel@gmail.com>
	<AANLkTi=Cn1N8keywMbePZPiezg9cn_EXQZiLzF7cym+q@mail.gmail.com>
	<008701cb6b57$634f2890$29ed79b0$@com>
	<AANLkTi=X46EjYEyJ1jZKCPNci7=SHQqbnj1cHU=uv8Ko@mail.gmail.com>
	<4CB7E0EB.4090707@krogh.cc>
In-Reply-To: <4CB7E0EB.4090707@krogh.cc>
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Jesper Krogh wrote:
> To be honest, if it is EDB, Redpill, Command Prompt, 2nd Quadrant or
> whoever end up doing the job is, seen from this perspective not
> important, just it ends in the hands of someone "capable" of doing
> it. ... although Heikki has done some work on this task already.

Now you're closing in on why this is a touchy subject.  Heikki has 
already done work here funded by EDB.  As such, the idea of anyone else 
being put in charge of fund raising and allocation for this particular 
feature would be a political mess.  While it would be nice if there was 
a completely fair sponsorship model for developing community PostgreSQL 
features, overseen by a benevolent, free, and completely unaffiliated 
overlord, we're not quite there yet.  In cases like these, where there's 
evidence a company with a track record of delivering features is already 
involved, you're probably better off contacting someone from there 
directly--rather than trying to fit that into the public bounty model 
some PostgreSQL work is getting done via lately.  The visibility map is 
a particularly troublesome one, because the list of "capable" people who 
could work on that, but who aren't already working at a company having 
some relations with EDB, is rather slim.

I know that's kind of frustrating to hear, for people who would like to 
get a feature done but can't finance the whole thing themselves.  But 
look on the bright side--the base price is free, and when you give most 
PostgreSQL companies money to work on something it's at least possible 
to get what you want done.  You'd have to pay a whole lot more than the 
$15K number you threw out there before any of the commercial database 
vendors would pay any attention to your particular feature request.

-- 
Greg Smith, 2ndQuadrant US greg@2ndQuadrant.com Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services and Support  www.2ndQuadrant.us
Author, "PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance"    Pre-ordering at:
https://www.packtpub.com/postgresql-9-0-high-performance/book