Re: beta testing version - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Sat, Dec 02, 2000 at 11:31:37AM -0800, Don Baccus wrote:
> At 05:42 PM 12/2/00 +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> >Don Baccus writes:
> >
> >> Exactly what is PostgreSQL, Inc doing in this area?
> >
> >Good question...  See http://www.erserver.com/.
> 
<snip>
> 
> Boy, I can just imagine the uproar this statement will cause on Slashdot when
> the world finds out about it.
> 

That one doesn't worry me us much as this quote from the press release at

http://www.pgsql.com/press/PR_5.html

"We expect to have the source code tested and ready to contribute to
the open source community before the middle of October. Until that time
we are considering requests from a number of development companies and
venture capital groups to join us in this process."

Where's the damn core code? I've seen a number of examples already of
people asking about remote access/replication function, with an eye
toward implementing it, and being told "PostgreSQL, Inc. is working
on that". It's almost Microsoftesque: preannounce future functionality
suppressing the competition.

I realize this is probably just the typical deadline slip that we see
on the public releases of pgsql itself, not a silent retraction of the
promise to release the code (especially since some of the same core
people are involved), but there is a difference: if I absolutely need
something that's only in CVS right now, I can bite the bullet and use
a snapshot server. With erserver, I'm stuck sitting on my hands, with a
promise of future functionality. Well, not really sitting on my hands:
working on other tasks, with the assumption that erserver will be there
soon. I'd rather not roll my own in an incompatable way, and have to
port or redo the custom parts.

So, now I'm going into a couple critical, funding decision making
meetings in the next few weeks. I was planning on being able to promise
certain systems with concrete knowledge of what I will and won't be
able to provide, and how much custom coding will be needed. Now, If the
schedsule slips much more, I won't. It's even possible that the erserver's
implementation won't fit my needs at all, and I'll be back rolling my own.

I realize this sounds a bit ungrateful: they're giving away the code,
after all, and potentially saving my a lot of work.

It's just the contrast between the really open work on the core server,
and the lack of a peep when the promised deadlines have rolled past that
gets under my skin.

I'd be really happy with someone reiterating the commitment to an
open release, and letting us all know how badly the schedule has
slipped. Remember, we're all here to help! Get everyone stomping bugs
in code you're going to release soon anyway, and concentrate on the
quasi-propriatary extensions.

Ross