Re: [HACKERS] Indexing for geographic objects?

Tom Lane wrote:
> Michael Ansley <Michael(dot)Ansley(at)intec-telecom-systems(dot)com> writes:
> > Remember also that the GiST library has been integrated into PG, (my brother
> > is doing some thesis workon that at the moment),
>
> Yeah? Does it still work?

You bet. One would otherwise be hearing from me. I depend on it quite
heavily and I am checking with almost every release. I am now current
with 7.0.2 -- this time it required some change, although not in the c
code. And that's pretty amazing: I was only screwed once since
postgres95 -- by a beta version I don't remember now; then I
complained and the problem was fixed. I don't even know whom I owe
thanks for that.

> Since the GIST code is not tested by any standard regress test, and is
> so poorly documented that hardly anyone can be using it,
I've always
> assumed that it is probably suffering from a severe case of bit-rot.
>
> I'd love to see someone contribute documentation and regression test
> cases for it --- it's a great feature, if it works.

The bit rot fortunately did not happen, but the documentation I
promised Bruce many months ago is still "in the works" -- meaning,
something interfered and I haven't had a chance to start. Like a
friend of mine muses all the time, "Promise doesn't mean
marriage". Boy, do I feel guilty.

It's a bit better with the testing. I am not sure how to test the
GiST directly, but I have adapted the current version of regression
tests for the data types that depend on it. One can find them in my
contrib directory, under test/ (again, it's
http://wit.mcs.anl.gov/~selkovjr/pg_extensions/contrib.tgz)

It would be nice if at least one of the GiST types became a built-in
(that would provide for a more intensive testing), but I can also
think of the contrib code being (optionally) included into the main
build and regression test trees. The top-level makefile can have a
couple of special targets to build and test the contribs. I believe my
version of the tests can be a useful example to other contributors
whose code is already in the source tree.

--Gene