From 29eece51a851ca07e1735e791a05ed3cd0b78aeb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:09:49 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Back out release changes that weren't ready for commit.
---
doc/src/sgml/release.sgml | 102 ++++++++++++++------------------------
1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 64 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
index 2deb3bd1ab7..83d831cba16 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.516 2007/10/10 13:43:42 momjian Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.517 2007/10/10 14:09:49 momjian Exp $ -->
<!--
Typical markup:
@@ -48,16 +48,14 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
- This release adds major new capabilities to the
- <productname>PostgreSQL</> database system, including:
+ This release adds many improvements that were requested by users,
including:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
- Full text search now fully integrated into the core database
- system
+ Full text search is now a built-in feature
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -70,14 +68,13 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
<listitem>
<para>
- Enumerated (enum) data types
+ enum data types
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) data type, similar to that
- defined by RFC 4122
+ UUID data type, similar to that defined by RFC 4122
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -89,34 +86,32 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
<listitem>
<para>
- Control of whether <literal>NULL</>s sort first or last, using
<literal>ORDER BY ... NULLS FIRST/LAST</>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Updatable cursors using <literal>UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF</>
- <replaceable>cursor_name</>
+ Updatable cursors
+ (<literal>UPDATE/DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF</>
+ <replaceable>cursor_name</>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Per-function server configuration parameter settings
+ Per-function parameter settings
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- User-defined types can now have type modifiers
+ User-defined types can now have type modifiers (parameters)
</para>
<para>
- This allows a user type to take an optional modifier when
- being created, e.g. <type>SSNUM(7)</>. Previously only
- predefined system data types would allow this, e.g.
- <type>CHAR(4)</>.
+ Declarations such as <type>varchar(42)</type> are no longer
+ restricted to use by built-in data types.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -133,10 +128,10 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
<listitem>
<para>
- Numerous improvements in logging and statistics collection,
- including the ability to emit postmaster log messages in
- <acronym>CSV</> format, which can be loaded into a database
- table for analysis
+ Numerous improvements in logging and statistics collection
+ capabilities, including the ability to emit postmaster log messages
+ in CSV format that can be directly loaded into a database table
+ for analysis
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -152,24 +147,21 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
</para>
<para>
- This allows multiple vacuums to run concurrently, meaning
- vacuuming of a large table will not prevent smaller tables from
- being vacuumed at the same time. Autovacuum is now considered
- mature and therefore is enabled by default.
+ Autovacuum is now considered mature enough to be enabled by default.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- The backend database server can now be compiled with
- <productname>Microsoft Visual C++</>
+ The entire <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> system can
+ now be compiled with Microsoft Visual C++
</para>
<para>
- Windows executables made with Visual C++ might have better
- stability and performance than those made with other tool sets.
- Development and debugging tools familiar to Windows developers
- will also work.
+ This will improve the ability of Windows-based developers to
+ contribute to the project. Windows executables made with Visual C++
+ may also have better stability and performance than those made with
+ other tool sets.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -181,41 +173,32 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
<listitem>
<para>
- Asynchronous commit option allows transactions to be committed
- but on-disk change to be delayed
+ Asynchronous commit option to allow transactions to be reported
+ committed before they have actually been flushed to disk
</para>
<para>
- This feature dramatically increases performance for data
- modification queries. The disadvantage is that because on-disk
- changes are delayed, if the operating system crashes before data
- is written to the disk, committed data will be lost. This is
- only useful for applications that can accept some data loss.
- Unlike <varname>fsync</varname>, asynchronous commit does not
- risk database corruption; the worst case is that after an
- operating system crash, the last few reportedly-committed
- transactions will be missing.
+ This would not, of course, be acceptable if the client takes some
+ critical external action on the assumption that the transaction
+ will be remembered; but for certain applications, it is an acceptable
+ risk for some or all transactions to use this mode. Unlike existing
+ options such as <varname>fsync</varname>, asynchronous commit does
+ not risk database corruption; the worst case is that after a crash,
+ the last few reportedly-committed transactions will not have
+ taken effect.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <quote>Distributed</> checkpoints prevent I/O spikes during
- checkpoints
+ <quote>Distributed</> checkpoints to spread out the I/O load of a
+ checkpoint
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Heap-Only Tuples (<acronym>HOT</>) reduce overhead of updates
- </para>
-
- <para>
- To allow high concurrency <productname>PostgreSQL</> retains old
- versions of updated rows. Previously only <command>VACUUM</>
- could reuse space taken by dead rows. With <acronym>HOT</> dead
- row space can be reused at the time of <command>UPDATE</> or
- <command>INSERT</>. This allows for more consistent performance.
+ Heap-Only Tuples (HOT) to reduce overhead of updates
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -224,21 +207,12 @@ do it for earlier branch release files.
Just-in-time background writer strategy to improve disk write
efficiency
</para>
-
- <para>
- This basically makes the background writer self-tuning.
- </para>
-
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Reduction of both per-field and per-row storage requirements
- </para>
-
- <para>
- For example, two <type>CHAR(1)</type> fields now take 4 bytes
- instead of 16.
+ Reduction of on-disk data size through reducing both per-tuple
+ and per-field overheads
</para>
</listitem>
--
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