Re: GSoC 2011 Eager MV implementation proposal

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 6:31 PM, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:
>> You had better start by getting a clear statement from Pavel as to
>> whether he wishes to release the code in that repository under the
>> PostgreSQL license.  I am not sure that he ever formally submitted it.
>
> I don't think it's reasonable for a student to do that.  That really
> needs to be up to us in the project.

My point is that we cannot accept code unless it's clear that the
author wishes to contribute it under our license. We cannot assume
that code from any random source on the Internet falls into that
category.

>> I still think you should start with an easier project.
>
> Can you give him some suggestions?  He's interested in materialized
> views; what chunk is biteable-off?

Materialized views is a big project that will be quite invasive and
touch many areas of the system; it will be comparable to SQL/MED, in
that both add a new relkind. I don't think there's any chunk that can
be broken off there that will be reasonable for a first patch.

I made some other suggestions via IM last night, hence my use of the
word "still". If anyone has ideas, toss 'em out... one idea I had
for a project, if it's not stepping on Greg Stark's toes, is to pick
up the EXPLAIN (RESOURCE) patch that he was working on a while back
and finish it off.

Mind you, if he wants to work on materialized views, he's more than
welcome to do so, and if the patch is awesome, I will be as happy as
anyone. But it took me two years to work up to handling patches of
that complexity, so I think it's reasonable to suggest that he might
also need more than zero ramp-up. It's to no one's benefit if new
contributors try a project that is too hard, get discouraged, and give
up.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company