From: Chris Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Why we don't want hints
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:25:37 -0500
Organization: cbbrowne Computing Inc
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To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org

robertmhaas@gmail.com (Robert Haas) writes:
> On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 11:45 AM, Kevin Grittner
> <Kevin.Grittner@wicourts.gov> wrote:
>> Well, I'm comfortable digging in my heels against doing *lame* hints
>> just because "it's what all the other kids are doing," which I think
>> is the only thing which would have satisfied the OP on this thread.
>> From both on-list posts and ones exchanged off-list with me, it
>> seems he was stubbornly resistant to properly tuning the server to
>> see if any problems remained, or posting particular problems to see
>> how they would be most effectively handled in PostgreSQL.  We
>> obviously can't be drawn into dumb approaches because of
>> ill-informed demands like that.
>
> Nor was I proposing any such thing.  But that doesn't make "we don't
> want hints" an accurate statement.  Despite the impression that OP
> went away with, the real situation is a lot more nuanced than that,
> and the statement on the Todo list gives the wrong impression, IMHO.

I have added the following comment to the ToDo:

   We are not interested to implement hints in ways they are commonly
   implemented on other databases, and proposals based on "because
   they've got them" will not be welcomed.  If you have an idea that
   avoids the problems that have been observed with other hint systems,
   that could lead to valuable discussion.

That seems to me to characterize the nuance.
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