From: Chris Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Read/Write block sizes
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:49:26 -0400
Organization: cbbrowne Computing Inc
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To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org

rjpeace@earthlink.net (Ron) writes:
> At 03:45 PM 8/25/2005, Josh Berkus wrote:
>> > Ask me sometime about my replacement for GNU sort. Ā It uses the
>> > same sorting algorithm, but it's an order of magnitude faster due
>> > to better I/O strategy. Ā Someday, in my infinite spare time, I
>> > hope to demonstrate that kind of improvement with a patch to pg.
>>
>>Since we desperately need some improvements in sort performance, I
>>do hope you follow up on this.
>
> I'll generalize that.  IMO we desperately need any and all
> improvements in IO performance.  Even more so than we need
> improvements in sorting or sorting IO performance.

That's frankly a step backwards.

Feel free to "specialise" that instead.  

A patch that improves some specific aspect of performance is a
thousand times better than any sort of "desperate desire for any and
all improvements in I/O performance."

The latter is unlikely to provide any usable result.

The "specialized patch" is also pointedly better in that a
*confidently submitted* patch is likely to be way better than any sort
of "desperate clutching at whatever may come to hand."

Far too often, I see people trying to address performance problems via
the "desperate clutching at whatever seems near to hand," and that
generally turns out very badly as a particular result of the whole
"desperate clutching" part.

If you can get a sort improvement submitted, that's a concrete
improvement...
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