Re: Core Extensions relocation

Greg Smith wrote:
> I've submitted two changes to this CommitFest that are enhancing 
> features in this "core extensions" set.  Right now I have multiple 
> customers who are desperate for both of those features.  With 
> extensions, I can give them changes that solve their immediate crisis 
> right now, almost a full year before they could possibly appear in a 
> proper release of PostgreSQL.  And then I can push those back toward 
> community PostgreSQL, with any luck landing in the next major version.  
> Immediate gratification for the person funding development, and peer 
> reviewed code that goes through a long beta and release cycle.  That's 
> the vision I have for a PostgreSQL that is simultaneously stable and 
> agile.  The easiest way to get there it is to lead by example--by having 
> extensions that provide necessary, visible components to core, while 
> still being obviously separate components.  That's the best approach for 
> proving this development model works and is suitable for everyone.

I think a question is how often people are waiting for features that
actually can be addressed in a contrib/plugin way.  My gut feeling is
that most missing features have to be added to the server core (e.g.
index-only scans) and are not possible to add in a contrib/plugin way.  

I am not saying this would not help, but I am saying that this is going
to address only a small part of the goal of getting features to users
quicker.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +