I am marking the completed TODO items.  Are these done?

	* Have standalone backend read postgresql.conf
	* Prevent whole-row references from leaking memory, e.g. SELECT
	  COUNT(tab.*)
	* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
	  non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
	* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column
	* Return proper effected tuple count from complex commands [return]
	o Allow SHOW of non-modifiable variables, like pg_controldata
        o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
        o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
        o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython
        o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
	* Allow psql to do table completion for SELECT * FROM schema_part and
	  table completion for SELECT * FROM schema_name.
        o Support jdbc both 'make' and 'ant'
	* Make blind writes go through the file descriptor cache
	* Improve Subplan list handling
	* Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead (Neil)
	* Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
        o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY

The current TODO is attached with completed items marked.	

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

TODO list for PostgreSQL
========================
Last updated:		Thu Aug  7 22:00:19 EDT 2003

Current maintainer:	Bruce Momjian (pgman@candle.pha.pa.us)

The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
the PostgreSQL web site, http://www.PostgreSQL.org.

A dash (-) marks changes that will appear in the upcoming 7.4 release.

Bracketed items "[]" have more detailed.


Urgent
======

* Add replication of distributed databases [replication]
	o Automatic failover
	o Load balancing
	o Master/slave replication
	o Multi-master replication
	o Partition data across servers
	o Sample implementation in contrib/rserv
	o Queries across databases or servers (two-phase commit)
	o Allow replication over unreliable or non-persistent links
	o http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/pgreplication/projdisplay.php
* Point-in-time data recovery using backup and write-ahead log
* Create native Win32 port [win32]


Reporting
=========

* -Allow elog() to return error codes, module name, file name, line
  number, not just messages (Tom)
* -Add error codes (Tom)
* -Make error messages more consistent
* Show location of syntax error in query [yacc]
* -Add GUC log_statement_and_duration to print statement and >= min duration


Administration
==============

* Incremental backups
* Remove unreferenced table files and temp tables during database vacuum
  or postmaster startup (Bruce)
* Remove behavior of postmaster -o after making postmaster/postgres
  flags unique
* Allow easy display of usernames in a group
* Allow configuration files to be specified in a different directory
* -Add start time to pg_stat_activity
* Allow limits on per-db/user connections
* Have standalone backend read postgresql.conf
* Add group object ownership, so groups can rename/drop/grant on objects,
  so we can implement roles
* Add the concept of dataspaces/tablespaces [tablespaces]
* -Allow CIDR format to be used in pg_hba.conf
* Allow logging of only data definition(DDL), or DDL and modification statements
* Allow log lines to include session-level information, like database and user
* Allow server log information to be output as INSERT statements


Data Types
==========

* -Add IPv6 capability to INET/CIDR types
* Remove Money type, add money formatting for decimal type
* Change factorial to return a numeric
* -Change NUMERIC data type to use base 10,000 internally
* Change NUMERIC to enforce the maximum precision, and increase it
* Add function to return compressed length of TOAST data values (Tom)
* Allow INET subnet tests using non-constants
* Add transaction_timestamp(), statement_timestamp(), clock_timestamp() functionality
* -Add GUC variables to control floating number output digits (Pedro Ferreira)
* Have sequence dependency track use of DEFAULT sequences, seqname.nextval
* Disallow changing default expression of a SERIAL column
* Allow infinite dates just like infinite timestamps
* Allow pg_dump to dump sequences using NO_MAXVALUE and NO_MINVALUE
* Allow better handling of numeric constants, type conversion [typeconv]
* Allow backend to output result sets in XML
* Prevent whole-row references from leaking memory, e.g. SELECT COUNT(tab.*)
* -Allow current datestyle to restrict dates;  prevent month/day swapping
  from making invalid dates valid
* -Prevent month/day swapping of ISO dates to make invalid dates valid
* Have initdb set DateStyle based on locale?
* -Delay resolution of array expression type so assignment coercion 
  can be performed on empty array expressions (Joe)

* ARRAYS
	o Allow nulls in arrays
	o -Allow arrays to be ORDER'ed
	o Support construction of array result values in expressions

* BINARY DATA
	o Improve vacuum of large objects, like /contrib/vacuumlo
	o Add security checking for large objects
	o Make file in/out interface for TOAST columns, similar to large object
	  interface (force out-of-line storage and no compression)
	o Auto-delete large objects when referencing row is deleted


Multi-Language Support
======================

* Add NCHAR (as distinguished from ordinary varchar),
* Allow LOCALE on a per-column basis, default to ASCII
* Support multiple simultaneous character sets, per SQL92
* Improve Unicode combined character handling
* Optimize locale to have minimal performance impact when not used (Peter E)
* Add octet_length_server() and octet_length_client() (Thomas, Tatsuo)
* Make octet_length_client the same as octet_length() (?)
* Prevent mismatch of frontend/backend encodings from converting bytea
  data from being interpreted as encoded strings
* -Remove Cyrillic recode support

 
Views / Rules
=============

* Automatically create rules on views so they are updateable, per SQL92 [view]
* Add the functionality for WITH CHECK OPTION clause of CREATE VIEW
* Allow NOTIFY in rules involving conditionals
* Have views on temporary tables exist in the temporary namespace
* Move psql backslash information into views
* Allow RULE recompilation


Indexes
=======

* Allow CREATE INDEX zman_index ON test (date_trunc( 'day', zman ) datetime_ops)
  fails index can't store constant parameters
* Order duplicate index entries by tid for faster heap lookups
* Allow inherited tables to inherit index, UNIQUE constraint, and primary
  key, foreign key  [inheritance]
* UNIQUE INDEX on base column not honored on inserts from inherited table
  INSERT INTO inherit_table (unique_index_col) VALUES (dup) should fail
  [inheritance]
* Add UNIQUE capability to non-btree indexes
* Add btree index support for reltime, tinterval, regproc
* Add rtree index support for line, lseg, path, point
* -Certain indexes will not shrink, e.g. indexes on ever-increasing
  columns and indexes with many duplicate keys
* Use indexes for min() and max() or convert to SELECT col FROM tab ORDER
  BY col DESC LIMIT 1 if appropriate index exists and WHERE clause acceptible
* Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales
* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
  non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
* Be smarter about insertion of already-ordered data into btree index
* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column
* Use bitmaps to fetch heap pages in sequential order [performance]
* Use bitmaps to combine existing indexes [performance]
* Improve handling of index scans for NULL
* Allow SELECT * FROM tab WHERE int2col = 4 to use int2col index, int8,
  float4, numeric/decimal too [optimizer]
* Add FILLFACTOR to btree index creation
* Add concurrency to GIST
* Improve concurrency of hash indexes (Neil)
* Allow a single index to index multiple tables (for inheritance and subtables)


Commands
========

* Add BETWEEN ASYMMETRIC/SYMMETRIC (Christopher)
* -Allow LIMIT/OFFSET to use expressions (Tom)
* CREATE TABLE AS can not determine column lengths from expressions [atttypmod]
* Allow UPDATE to handle complex aggregates [update]
* Allow command blocks to ignore certain types of errors
* Allow backslash handling in quoted strings to be disabled for portability
* Return proper effected tuple count from complex commands [return]
* Allow UPDATE, DELETE to handle table aliases for self-joins [delete]
* Add CORRESPONDING BY to UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT
* Allow REINDEX to rebuild all indexes, remove /contrib/reindex
* -Make a transaction-safe TRUNCATE (Rod)
* Add ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS options to GROUP BY
* Add schema option to createlang
* Allow savepoints / nested transactions [transactions] (Bruce)
* Allow UPDATE tab SET ROW (col, ...) = (...) for updating multiple columns
* -Allow UPDATE to use SET col = DEFAULT
* -Add config variable to prevent auto-adding missing FROM-clause tables
* Allow SET CONSTRAINTS to be qualified by schema/table
* -Have SELECT '13 minutes'::interval display zero seconds in ISO datestyle
* Prevent COMMENT ON DATABASE from using a database name
* Add GUC variable to prevent waiting on locks


* ALTER
	o ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN does not honor DEFAULT and non-CHECK CONSTRAINT
	o ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN column DEFAULT should fill existing
	  rows with DEFAULT value
	o ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN column SERIAL doesn't create sequence because
          of the item above
	o --Add ALTER TABLE tab SET WITHOUT OIDS (Rod)
	o -Add ALTER SEQUENCE to modify min/max/increment/cache/cycle values
	o Have ALTER TABLE rename SERIAL sequences
	o Allow columns to be reordered using ALTER ... POSITION i col1 [,col2];
	  have SELECT * and INSERT honor such ordering
	o Allow ALTER TABLE to modify column lengths and change to binary
	  compatible types
	o Add ALTER DATABASE ... OWNER TO newowner

* CLUSTER
	o Automatically maintain clustering on a table
	o -Allow CLUSTER to cluster all tables (Alvaro Herrera)

* COPY
	o Allow dump/load of CSV format
	o Allow COPY to report error lines and continue;  optionally
	  allow error codes to be specified; requires savepoints or can
	  not be run in a multi-statement transaction
	o Allow COPY to understand \x as hex
	o Have COPY return number of rows loaded/unloaded

* CURSOR
	o Allow BINARY option to SELECT, just like DECLARE
	o -MOVE 0 should not move to end of cursor (Bruce)
	o Allow UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF cursor using per-cursor tid
	  stored in the backend (Gavin)
	o Prevent DROP of table being referenced by our own open cursor
	o -Allow cursors outside transactions

* INSERT
	o Allow INSERT/UPDATE of system-generated oid value for a row
	o Allow INSERT INTO tab (col1, ..) VALUES (val1, ..), (val2, ..)
	o Allow INSERT/UPDATE ... RETURNING new.col or old.col; handle
	  RULE cases (Philip)

* SHOW/SET
	o Add SET PERFORMANCE_TIPS option to suggest INDEX, VACUUM, VACUUM
	  ANALYZE, and CLUSTER
	o Add SET SCHEMA
	o -Allow EXPLAIN EXECUTE to see prepared plans
	o Allow SHOW of non-modifiable variables, like pg_controldata

* SERVER-SIDE LANGUAGES
	o Allow PL/PgSQL's RAISE function to take expressions
	o Change PL/PgSQL to use palloc() instead of malloc()
	o Allow Java server-side programming, http://pljava.sourceforge.net
	  [java]
	o Fix problems with complex temporary table creation/destruction
	  without using PL/PgSQL EXECUTE, needs cache prevention/invalidation
        o Fix PL/pgSQL RENAME to work on variables other than OLD/NEW
	o Improve PL/PgSQL exception handling
	o Allow parameters to be specified by name and type during definition
	o Allow function parameters to be passed by name,
	  get_employee_salary(emp_id => 12345, tax_year => 2001)
	o Add PL/PgSQL packages
	o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
	o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
	o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython
	o -Make PL/PgSQL %TYPE schema-aware
	o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
	o Add PL/PHP (Joe, Jan)
	o Allow PL/pgSQL to name columns by ordinal position, e.g. rec.(3)
	o Allow PL/pgSQL EXECUTE query_var INTO record_var;


Clients
=======

* -Allow psql to show transaction status if backend protocol changes made
* -Add schema, cast, and conversion backslash commands to psql (Christopher)
* -Allow pg_dump to dump a specific schema (Neil Conway)
* Allow psql to do table completion for SELECT * FROM schema_part and
  table completion for SELECT * FROM schema_name.
* Add XML capability to pg_dump and COPY, when backend XML capability
* -Allow SSL-enabled clients to turn off SSL transfers
* -Modify pg_get_triggerdef() to take a boolean to pretty-print,
  and use that as part of pg_dump along with psql



* JDBC
	o Comprehensive test suite. This may be available already.
	o JDBC-standard BLOB support
	o Error Codes (pending backend implementation)
	o Support both 'make' and 'ant'
	o Fix LargeObject API to handle OIDs as unsigned ints
	o Use cursors implicitly to avoid large results (see setCursorName())
	o Add LISTEN/NOTIFY support to the JDBC driver (Barry)

* ECPG
	o Docs
	o Implement set descriptor, using descriptor
	o Solve cardinality > 1 for input descriptors / variables
	o Improve error handling
	o Add a semantic check level, e.g. check if a table really exists
	o -Add SQLSTATE
	o fix handling of DB attributes that are arrays
	o Use backend prepare/execute facility for ecpg where possible
	o -Make casts work in variable initializations
	o -Implement SQLDA
	o Fix nested C comments
	o sqlwarn[6] should be 'W' if the PRECISION or SCALE value specified
	o -Allow multi-threaded use of SQLCA
	o -Understand structure definitions outside a declare section
	o -Allow :var[:index] or :var[<integer>] as cvariable for an array var

* Python
	o Allow users to register their own types with pg_
	o Allow SELECT to return a dictionary of dictionaries
	o Allow COPY BINARY FROM


Referential Integrity
=====================

* Add MATCH PARTIAL referential integrity [foreign]
* Add deferred trigger queue file (Jan)
* Implement dirty reads or shared row locks and use them in RI triggers
* Enforce referential integrity for system tables
* Change foreign key constraint for array -> element to mean element
  in array
* Allow DEFERRABLE UNIQUE constraints
* Allow triggers to be disabled [trigger]
* With disabled triggers, allow pg_dump to use ALTER TABLE ADD FOREIGN KEY
* -Support statement-level triggers (Neil)
* Support triggers on columns (Neil)
* Have AFTER triggers execute after the appropriate SQL statement in a 
  function, not at the end of the function


Dependency Checking
===================

* Flush cached query plans when their underlying catalog data changes
* Use dependency information to dump data in proper order


Exotic Features
===============

* Add SQL99 WITH clause to SELECT (Tom, Fernando)
* Add SQL99 WITH RECURSIVE to SELECT (Tom, Fernando)
* Allow queries across multiple databases [crossdb]
* Add pre-parsing phase that converts non-ANSI features to supported features
* Allow plug-in modules to emulate features from other databases
* SQL*Net listener that makes PostgreSQL appear as an Oracle database
  to clients
* Two-phase commit to implement distributed transactions


PERFORMANCE
===========


Fsync
=====

* Delay fsync() when other backends are about to commit too [fsync]
	o Determine optimal commit_delay value
* Determine optimal fdatasync/fsync, O_SYNC/O_DSYNC options
	o Allow multiple blocks to be written to WAL with one write()


Cache
=====
* Shared catalog cache, reduce lseek()'s by caching table size in shared area
* Add free-behind capability for large sequential scans (Bruce)
* Consider use of open/fcntl(O_DIRECT) to minimize OS caching
* Make blind writes go through the file descriptor cache
* Cache last known per-tuple offsets to speed long tuple access
* Automatically place fixed-width, NOT NULL columns first in a table
* Consider using MVCC to cache count(*) queries with no WHERE clause


Vacuum
======

* Improve speed with indexes (perhaps recreate index instead) [vacuum]
* Reduce lock time by moving tuples with read lock, then write
  lock and truncate table [vacuum]
* Provide automatic running of vacuum in the background in backend
  rather than in /contrib [vacuum]
* Allow free space map to be auto-sized or warn when it is too small


Locking
=======

* Make locking of shared data structures more fine-grained
* Add code to detect an SMP machine and handle spinlocks accordingly
  from distributted.net, http://www1.distributed.net/source, 
  in client/common/cpucheck.cpp
* Research use of sched_yield() for spinlock acquisition failure


Startup Time
============

* Experiment with multi-threaded backend [thread]
* Add connection pooling [pool]
* Allow persistent backends [persistent]
* Create a transaction processor to aid in persistent connections and
  connection pooling
* Do listen() in postmaster and accept() in pre-forked backend
* Have pre-forked backend pre-connect to last requested database or pass
  file descriptor to backend pre-forked for matching database


Write-Ahead Log
===============

* Have after-change WAL write()'s write only modified data to kernel
* Reduce number of after-change WAL writes; they exist only to gaurd against
  partial page writes [wal]
* Turn off after-change writes if fsync is disabled (?)
* Add WAL index reliability improvement to non-btree indexes
* Find proper defaults for postgresql.conf WAL entries
* -Add checkpoint_min_warning postgresql.conf option to warn about checkpoints
  that are too frequent (Bruce)
* Allow xlog directory location to be specified during initdb, perhaps
  using symlinks
* Allow WAL information to recover corrupted pg_controldata
* Find a way to reduce rotational delay when repeatedly writing
  last WAL page


Optimizer / Executor
====================

* Improve Subplan list handling
* -Allow Subplans to use efficient joins(hash, merge) with upper variable
* -Add hash for evaluating GROUP BY aggregates (Tom)
* -Allow merge and hash joins on expressions not just simple variables (Tom)
* -Make IN/NOT IN have similar performance to EXISTS/NOT EXISTS (Tom)
* Missing optimizer selectivities for date, r-tree, etc. [optimizer]
* Allow ORDER BY ... LIMIT to select top values without sort or index
  using a sequential scan for highest/lowest values (Oleg)
* -Inline simple SQL functions to avoid overhead (Tom)
* Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead (Neil)
* Add utility to compute accurate random_page_cost value
* Improve ability to display optimizer analysis using OPTIMIZER_DEBUG
* Use CHECK constraints to improve optimizer decisions
* Check GUC geqo_threshold to see if it is still accurate
* Allow sorting, temp files, temp tables to use multiple work directories
* Improve the planner to use CHECK constraints to prune the plan (for subtables)


Miscellaneous
=============

* Do async I/O for faster random read-ahead of data
* -Get faster regex() code from Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.utoronto.ca>
* Use mmap() rather than SYSV shared memory or to write WAL files (?) [mmap]
* Improve caching of attribute offsets when NULLs exist in the row
* Add a script to ask system configuration questions and tune postgresql.conf
* Allow partitioning of table into multiple subtables


Source Code
===========

* Add use of 'const' for variables in source tree
* Rename some /contrib modules from pg* to pg_*
* Move some things from /contrib into main tree
* Remove warnings created by -Wcast-align
* Move platform-specific ps status display info from ps_status.c to ports
* -Modify regression tests to prevent failures do to minor numeric rounding
* -Add OpenBSD's getpeereid() call for local socket authentication
* Improve access-permissions check on data directory in Cygwin (Tom)
* Add documentation for perl, including mention of DBI/DBD perl location
* Create improved PostgreSQL introductory documentation for the PHP
  manuals (Rory)
* Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
* Change representation of whole-tuple parameters to functions
* Clarify use of 'application' and 'command' tags in SGML docs
* Better document ability to build only certain interfaces (Marc)
* Remove or relicense modules that are not under the BSD license, if possible
* Remove memory/file descriptor freeing before ereport(ERROR)  (Bruce)
* Acquire lock on a relation before building a relcache entry for it
* Research interaction of setitimer() and sleep() used by statement_timeout
* Add checks for fclose() failure
* Change CVS $Id: TODO,v 1.1107 2003/08/08 02:00:20 momjian Exp $ to $PostgreSQL$
* Exit postmaster if postgresql.conf can not be opened
* Rename /scripts directory because they are all C programs now
* Allow the regression tests to start postmaster with -i so the tests
  can be run on systems that don't support unix-domain sockets
* Allow creation of a libpq-only tarball
* Promote debug_query_string into a server-side function current_query()
* Allow the identifier length to be increased via a configure option


* Wire Protocol Changes
	o -Show transaction status in psql
	o -Allow binding of query parameters, support for prepared queries
	o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
	o -Remove hard-coded limits on user/db/password names
	o -Remove unused elements of startup packet (unused, tty, passlength)
	o -Fix COPY/fastpath protocol
	o Allow fastpast to pass values in portable format
	o -Error codes
	o Dynamic character set handling
	o Special passing of binary values in platform-neutral format (bytea?)
	o Add decoded type, length, precision
	o Compression?
	o -Report server version number, database encoding, client encoding
	o Update clients to use data types, typmod, schema.table.column names of
	  result sets using new query protocol


---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Developers who have claimed items are:
--------------------------------------
* Barry is Barry Lind <barry@xythos.com>
* Billy is Billy G. Allie <Bill.Allie@mug.org>
* Bruce is Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> of Software Research Assoc.
* Christopher is Christopher Kings-Lynne <chriskl@familyhealth.com.au> of
    Family Health Network
* D'Arcy is D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@druid.net> of The Cain Gang Ltd.
* Dave is Dave Cramer <dave@fastcrypt.com>
* Edmund is Edmund Mergl <E.Mergl@bawue.de>
* Fernando is Fernando Nasser <fnasser@redhat.com> of Red Hat
* Gavin is Gavin Sherry <swm@linuxworld.com.au> of Alcove Systems Engineering
* Greg is Greg Sabino Mullane <greg@turnstep.com>
* Hiroshi is Hiroshi Inoue <Inoue@tpf.co.jp>
* Karel is Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>
* Jan is Jan Wieck <JanWieck@Yahoo.com> of PeerDirect Corp.
* Liam is Liam Stewart <liams@redhat.com> of Red Hat
* Marc is Marc Fournier <scrappy@hub.org> of PostgreSQL, Inc.
* Mark is Mark Hollomon <mhh@mindspring.com>
* Michael is Michael Meskes <meskes@postgresql.org> of Credativ
* Neil is Neil Conway <neilc@samurai.com>
* Oleg is Oleg Bartunov <oleg@sai.msu.su>
* Peter M is Peter T Mount <peter@retep.org.uk> of Retep Software
* Peter E is Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
* Philip is Philip Warner <pjw@rhyme.com.au> of Albatross Consulting Pty. Ltd.
* Rod is Rod Taylor <pg@rbt.ca>
* Ross is Ross J. Reedstrom <reedstrm@wallace.ece.rice.edu>
* Stephan is Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com>
* Tatsuo is Tatsuo Ishii <t-ishii@sra.co.jp> of Software Research Assoc.
* Thomas is Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@fourpalms.org> of Jet Propulsion Labratory
* Tom is Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> of Red Hat
* Vadim is Vadim B. Mikheev <vadim4o@email.com> of Sector Data
Thu, 7 Aug 2003 22:01:02 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
TODO items
Bruce,

>         o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
>         o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment

AFAIK, these two are not done, but they are redundant.  Either one requires 
the implementation of the other.

>         o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values

Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger 
suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much 
sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off 
until I can make a full proposal?

>         o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython

If this was done, I would dearly love to know about it ...

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

Thu, 7 Aug 2003 20:36:22 -0700
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Re: TODO items
Josh Berkus wrote:
>>        o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
>>        o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
> 
> AFAIK, these two are not done, but they are redundant.  Either one requires 
> the implementation of the other.

They are done (at least the array declarations and array element 
assignment part):

create or replace function test() returns integer[] as '
declare
   v_ret integer[] := ''{}'';
begin
   v_ret[1] := 1;
   v_ret[2] := 2;
   return v_ret;
end;
' language plpgsql;
CREATE FUNCTION
regression=# select test();
  test
-------
  {1,2}
(1 row)


>>        o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> 
> Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger 
> suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much 
> sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off 
> until I can make a full proposal?

Is this somehow different from table functions (SRFs)?

>>        o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython
> 
> If this was done, I would dearly love to know about it ...
> 

Pretty much sure this has not been done. I'll be happy to work with 
someone if they want to pick this up, but I don't use them enough to 
feel comfortable doing it myself.

Joe


Thu, 07 Aug 2003 21:00:28 -0700
Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com>
Re: TODO items
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> I am marking the completed TODO items.  Are these done?
> 

Can we mark this one complete?
* Allow easy display of usernames in a group
regression=# SELECT g.grosysid, g.groname, s.usesysid, s.usename FROM 
pg_shadow s, pg_group g WHERE s.usesysid = any (g.grolist);
  grosysid | groname | usesysid | usename
----------+---------+----------+---------
       100 | g1      |      100 | user1
       101 | g2      |      100 | user1
       100 | g1      |      101 | user2
       101 | g2      |      101 | user2
       101 | g2      |      102 | user3
(5 rows)


This one isn't done:
* -Delay resolution of array expression type so assignment coercion
   can be performed on empty array expressions (Joe)

This one I don't understand:
o Support construction of array result values in expressions

I thought Peter did something with this one:
* Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales

Joe


Thu, 07 Aug 2003 21:24:29 -0700
Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com>
Re: TODO items
Joe,

> They are done (at least the array declarations and array element
> assignment part):

Way cool!  How'd I miss that one?

Time to test ....

> >>        o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> >
> > Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger
> > suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much
> > sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off
> > until I can make a full proposal?
>
> Is this somehow different from table functions (SRFs)?

Yes.   Reference T-SQL's OUTPUT parameters.

Mind you, with the implementation of SRFs, it's not as necessary as it once 
was.

> Pretty much sure this has not been done. I'll be happy to work with
> someone if they want to pick this up, but I don't use them enough to
> feel comfortable doing it myself.

I'd be happy to test PL/Perl.  I won't be any help with the others ...

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

Thu, 7 Aug 2003 21:35:01 -0700
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Re: TODO items
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> I am marking the completed TODO items.  Are these done?

> 	* Have standalone backend read postgresql.conf

[looks] Nope.  No ProcessConfigFile() call in postgres.c.

> 	* Prevent whole-row references from leaking memory, e.g. SELECT
> 	  COUNT(tab.*)

Nope.

> 	* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
> 	  non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses

Not sure what this means.

> 	* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column

Not done.

> 	* Return proper effected tuple count from complex commands [return]

I looked at that TODO.detail file, and it all seems to be ancient
history.  Didn't we resolve those issues to peoples' satisfaction in 7.3?

> 	o Allow SHOW of non-modifiable variables, like pg_controldata

I put in read-only variables for the things that seemed most interesting
(LC_COLLATE for example), but the coverage isn't complete.

>         o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE

AFAIK this is pretty much fixed.

>         o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values

Not done (unless this is referring to RETURN NEXT, but I think it's
talking about multiple output parameters).

>         o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython

Not done.

>         o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment

Done.

> 	* Make blind writes go through the file descriptor cache

Not done.

> 	* Improve Subplan list handling

Dunno what this is referring to.

> 	* Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead (Neil)

Not done.

> 	* Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages

Not done.

>         o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY

Not done, but there is room in the FE/BE protocol now for something like
this.

			regards, tom lane

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 09:56:34 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: TODO items 
Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com> writes:
> This one I don't understand:
> o Support construction of array result values in expressions

Not sure why you don't understand it, when you did it ;-).  It's asking
for the ARRAY[] syntax.  Bruce, that one should be marked done.

> I thought Peter did something with this one:
> * Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales

Yeah, he did.

			regards, tom lane

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 10:11:07 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: TODO items 
Josh Berkus wrote:
> Bruce,
> 
> >         o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
> >         o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
> 
> AFAIK, these two are not done, but they are redundant.  Either one requires 
> the implementation of the other.

OK.


> >         o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> 
> Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger 
> suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much 
> sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off 
> until I can make a full proposal?

Removed.


-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 12:33:52 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Joe Conway wrote:
> Josh Berkus wrote:
> >>        o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
> >>        o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
> > 
> > AFAIK, these two are not done, but they are redundant.  Either one requires 
> > the implementation of the other.
> 
> They are done (at least the array declarations and array element 
> assignment part):
> 
> create or replace function test() returns integer[] as '
> declare
>    v_ret integer[] := ''{}'';
> begin
>    v_ret[1] := 1;
>    v_ret[2] := 2;
>    return v_ret;
> end;
> ' language plpgsql;
> CREATE FUNCTION
> regression=# select test();
>   test
> -------
>   {1,2}
> (1 row)
> 


OK, marked as done.

> >>        o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> > 
> > Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger 
> > suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much 
> > sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off 
> > until I can make a full proposal?
> 
> Is this somehow different from table functions (SRFs)?

Yes, I am unsure what it is.  Removed pending later proposal.


-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 12:35:13 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Joe Conway wrote:
> Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > I am marking the completed TODO items.  Are these done?
> > 
> 
> Can we mark this one complete?
> * Allow easy display of usernames in a group
> regression=# SELECT g.grosysid, g.groname, s.usesysid, s.usename FROM 
> pg_shadow s, pg_group g WHERE s.usesysid = any (g.grolist);
>   grosysid | groname | usesysid | usename
> ----------+---------+----------+---------
>        100 | g1      |      100 | user1
>        101 | g2      |      100 | user1
>        100 | g1      |      101 | user2
>        101 | g2      |      101 | user2
>        101 | g2      |      102 | user3
> (5 rows)

OK, let me mark it as done, and add to the psql section:

	* Allow psql \du to show groups, and add \dg for groups

> This one isn't done:
> * -Delay resolution of array expression type so assignment coercion
>    can be performed on empty array expressions (Joe)

OK.

> This one I don't understand:
> o Support construction of array result values in expressions

I don't either.  Anyone?

> I thought Peter did something with this one:
> * Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales

He added a special LIKE operator type, rather than allowing our existing
indexes to use LIKE, so I would say it is partially done.

I updated it to:

	* -Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales using
	  special index

and marked it as done.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 12:53:52 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Josh Berkus wrote:
> Joe,
> 
> > They are done (at least the array declarations and array element
> > assignment part):
> 
> Way cool!  How'd I miss that one?
> 
> Time to test ....
> 
> > >>        o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> > >
> > > Hmmm ... I know how this got on the TODO, but it's a fragment of a larger
> > > suggestion about PROCEDURES vs. FUNCTIONS.   I don't think it makes much
> > > sense on its own without the other elements; maybe we should take it off
> > > until I can make a full proposal?
> >
> > Is this somehow different from table functions (SRFs)?
> 
> Yes.   Reference T-SQL's OUTPUT parameters.
> 
> Mind you, with the implementation of SRFs, it's not as necessary as it once 
> was.

Do you have TODO to add for this?  I removed the original one because,
as worded, it was complete.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 12:55:02 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Bruce Momjian wrote:
>>>>>       o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
>>>>
> 
> Do you have TODO to add for this?  I removed the original one because,
> as worded, it was complete.
> 

Actually, now that I look at it again, it is referring to procedures, 
not functions. Maybe just make it:

o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES

Joe


Fri, 08 Aug 2003 10:01:46 -0700
Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com>
Re: TODO items
Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> > I am marking the completed TODO items.  Are these done?
> 
> > 	* Have standalone backend read postgresql.conf
> 
> [looks] Nope.  No ProcessConfigFile() call in postgres.c.

OK.

> 
> > 	* Prevent whole-row references from leaking memory, e.g. SELECT
> > 	  COUNT(tab.*)
> 
> Nope.

OK, I wasn't sure because you had done per-tuple memory contexts.

> > 	* Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
> > 	  non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
> 
> Not sure what this means.

This is a Vadim idea.  The idea was that if you had a multi-key index on
col1,col2,col3, and you wanted to do a lookup on col1,col3, you could
still use the index, and just run through all the matching col1 values
looking for a matching col3 in the index, rather than going to the heap
and looking for a col3 match?  Is this item worth keeping?

> 
> > 	* Prevent index uniqueness checks when UPDATE does not modify the column
> 
> Not done.

OK.

> > 	* Return proper effected tuple count from complex commands [return]
> 
> I looked at that TODO.detail file, and it all seems to be ancient
> history.  Didn't we resolve those issues to peoples' satisfaction in 7.3?

I think so. I think MOVE was our last one.

> > 	o Allow SHOW of non-modifiable variables, like pg_controldata
> 
> I put in read-only variables for the things that seemed most interesting
> (LC_COLLATE for example), but the coverage isn't complete.


I modified the item to say "some" and marked it as done:

        o -Allow SHOW of some non-modifiable variables, like
	  pg_controldata

Anyone want it kept?

> >         o Allow array declarations and other data types in PL/PgSQL DECLARE
> 
> AFAIK this is pretty much fixed.

OK.  Already reported by Joe.

> 
> >         o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> 
> Not done (unless this is referring to RETURN NEXT, but I think it's
> talking about multiple output parameters).

I am asking Josh for a new item with clearer wording.  Once we finish
some items, the wording often needs adjusting.

> >         o Add table function support to pltcl, plperl, plpython
> 
> Not done.

OK.

> >         o Allow PL/PgSQL to support array element assignment
> 
> Done.

OK.

> > 	* Make blind writes go through the file descriptor cache
> 
> Not done.

OK.


> 
> > 	* Improve Subplan list handling
> 
> Dunno what this is referring to.

I assume it is related to the subquery stuff you did.  I have marked it
as done.

> > 	* Precompile SQL functions to avoid overhead (Neil)
> 
> Not done.

OK.


> > 	* Add optional CRC checksum to heap and index pages
> 
> Not done.

OK.

> >         o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
> 
> Not done, but there is room in the FE/BE protocol now for something like
> this.

OK.

Thanks.  TODO updated.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 13:09:38 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Tom Lane wrote:
> Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com> writes:
> > This one I don't understand:
> > o Support construction of array result values in expressions
> 
> Not sure why you don't understand it, when you did it ;-).  It's asking
> for the ARRAY[] syntax.  Bruce, that one should be marked done.

Updated as done.

> > I thought Peter did something with this one:
> > * Allow LIKE indexing optimization for non-ASCII locales
> 
> Yeah, he did.

Yes, wording updated and marked as done.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 13:12:24 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items

OK, TODO updated.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe Conway wrote:
> Bruce Momjian wrote:
> >>>>>       o Add PL/PgSQL PROCEDURES that can return multiple values
> >>>>
> > 
> > Do you have TODO to add for this?  I removed the original one because,
> > as worded, it was complete.
> > 
> 
> Actually, now that I look at it again, it is referring to procedures, 
> not functions. Maybe just make it:
> 
> o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
> 
> Joe
> 
> 

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 13:13:06 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items
Bruce,

> > Actually, now that I look at it again, it is referring to procedures, 
> > not functions. Maybe just make it:
> > 
> > o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES

OK.   I need to put a full proposal behind this once 7.4 is in the can.  
However, this is largely academic until we get someone who really wants to 
take ownership of PL/pgSQL and has the coding skills (I have the former but 
not the latter).  

-- 
-Josh Berkus
 Aglio Database Solutions
 San Francisco


Fri, 8 Aug 2003 10:22:22 -0700
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Re: TODO items
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
>>> * Use index to restrict rows returned by multi-key index when used with
>>> non-consecutive keys or OR clauses, so fewer heap accesses
>> 
>> Not sure what this means.

> This is a Vadim idea.  The idea was that if you had a multi-key index on
> col1,col2,col3, and you wanted to do a lookup on col1,col3, you could
> still use the index, and just run through all the matching col1 values
> looking for a matching col3 in the index, rather than going to the heap
> and looking for a col3 match?  Is this item worth keeping?

Hmm.  Maybe.  Might as well leave it there awhile longer.

			regards, tom lane

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 13:26:17 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: TODO items 
Josh Berkus wrote:
>>>Actually, now that I look at it again, it is referring to procedures, 
>>>not functions. Maybe just make it:
>>>
>>>o Add capability to create and call PROCEDURES
> 
> OK.   I need to put a full proposal behind this once 7.4 is in the can.  
> However, this is largely academic until we get someone who really wants to 
> take ownership of PL/pgSQL and has the coding skills (I have the former but 
> not the latter).  
> 

This isn't isolated to just PL/pgSQL, just like the ability to create 
and call functions isn't. Support for PROCEDUREs in the backend is a 
prerequisite to being able to use PL/pgSQL to create procedures. It is 
necessary but not sufficient.

Similarly, if we want to support IN/OUT or named parameters, it isn't a 
PL/pgSQL issue per se, it is a general one.

Joe


Fri, 08 Aug 2003 10:38:03 -0700
Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com>
Re: TODO items
Joe,

> This isn't isolated to just PL/pgSQL, just like the ability to create 
> and call functions isn't. Support for PROCEDUREs in the backend is a 
> prerequisite to being able to use PL/pgSQL to create procedures. It is 
> necessary but not sufficient.
> 
> Similarly, if we want to support IN/OUT or named parameters, it isn't a 
> PL/pgSQL issue per se, it is a general one.

Sure.  But the ability to call in/out parameters (which would also be tied to 
calling the parameters by name, etc) is pretty useless without supporting 
them in one of the PLs.  And PL/pgSQL is the natural place to start, since it 
gives a migration path to DBAs with Oracle or MSSQL applications which make 
heavy use of procedures.

FWIW, my vision of "how procedures are different from functions" goes:
1) no overloading, permitting the calling of an SP with some but not all of 
its params;
2) no implicit transaction, allowing (maybe requiring?) begin/commit/rollback, 
and even vacuum, in an SP.
3) named parameters, callable by name from the client;
4) exception handling of some sort (either T-SQL's immediate-response model or 
the more robust "on exception" model from PL/SQL).
5) Cannot be called as a part of a larger query (required by (2) above)

-- 
-Josh Berkus
 Aglio Database Solutions
 San Francisco


Fri, 8 Aug 2003 10:49:53 -0700
Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Re: PROCEDURES  was: TODO items
Tom Lane kirjutas R, 08.08.2003 kell 16:56:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> >         o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
> 
> Not done, but there is room in the FE/BE protocol now for something like
> this.

Were there any other changes to NOTIFY - there was talk about making
NOTIFY use some other structure instead of ordinary PG tables in
backend.

------
Hannu


Wed, 13 Aug 2003 01:25:17 +0300
Hannu Krosing <hannu@tm.ee>
Re: TODO items

No, I don't think any of that was done, particularly because there was
no discussion of the implemention.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hannu Krosing wrote:
> Tom Lane kirjutas R, 08.08.2003 kell 16:56:
> > Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> > >         o Add optional textual message to NOTIFY
> > 
> > Not done, but there is room in the FE/BE protocol now for something like
> > this.
> 
> Were there any other changes to NOTIFY - there was talk about making
> NOTIFY use some other structure instead of ordinary PG tables in
> backend.
> 
> ------
> Hannu
> 

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Tue, 12 Aug 2003 20:53:17 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: TODO items