Re: POC: converting Lists into arrays

Hi,

On 2019-02-25 13:21:30 -0800, Peter Geoghegan wrote:
> ISTM that we should separate the question of whether or not the List
> API needs to continue to work without needing to change code in third
> party extensions from the question of whether or not the List API
> needs to be replaced whole cloth. These are not exactly independent
> questions, but they don't necessarily need to be discussed all at
> once.

I'm not convinced by that - if we are happy with the list API, not
duplicating code would be a stronger argument than if we actually are
unhappy. It makes no sense to go around and replace the same code twice
in a row if we also think other changes should be made (at the same
time, we obviously ought not to do too much at once, otherwise we'll
never get anywhere).

> Andres said that he doesn't like the pg_list.h API. It's not pretty,
> but is it really that bad?

Yes. The function names alone confound anybody new to postgres, we tend
to forget that after a few years. A lot of the function return types are
basically unpredictable without reading the code, the number of builtin
types is pretty restrictive, and there's no typesafety around the choice
of actually stored.

Greetings,

Andres Freund