Re: Call for 7.5 feature completion

On 8/26/05, Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> wrote:
> 
> Or, slightly different, what are people's most wanted features?


One feature, or rather set of features which was missing from the list and I 
think
it is important: i18n. :)

I mean, PostgreSQL has a number of good features concerning 
internationalization,
like UTF-8 support, transparent charset conversions, etc, but it also is 
area where
new users are likely to get bit. One of the most gotcha-prone areas in 
PostgreSQL
IMHO.

If you stick with English, its OK. If you want different language, say 
Polish, German,
whatever you'll probably careful enough to set a good locale. If you decide 
you
want to make a "hybrid" Polish-German database -- you may run into problems, 
like
indexes and ordering -- indexes are ordered using only one collation 
mechanism,
so you should probably use "C" locale. If you're unlucky -- you have to 
recreate
whole database. And then if you intend to use tsearch2, you have to set it 
up carefully
for given needs. I'm not saying that mysqlish approach of setting collate 
per table
would be a good solution. 

Frankly I don't think there is an ideal solution for this.

Some time ago someone suggested using "universal" UTF-8 collation, which is
good for most languages (and not for Turkish :)) -- I believe I've seen a 
patch for
this on this list. Having some "one size fits most" solution could be 
helpful.

Anyway, the i18n problem is a child-age illness, once you get over with it, 
you're
most likely safe from it for the rest of your life. But some newbies may not 
get
through it. ;)

Regards,
Dawid