Re: 7.4 Press Release -- Draft #4

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, Robert Treat wrote:

> The PostgreSQL Global Development Group is pleased to announce the
> availability of version 7.4 of the PostgreSQL Relational Database
> Management System (RDBMS). This major release represents the work
> of our world wide network of over 100 developers and contributors over
> the last 9 months, building on the unparalleled success of PostgreSQL 7.3.
>
> Significant advances in PostgreSQL version 7.4 include:
>
> - A complete redesign of error logging and reporting, providing
> developers with an SQL99 compliant mechanism for debugging and
> troubleshooting, providing users real time suggestions on how to avoid
> error conditions in their applications.
>
> - Improvements in subquery handling by the planner resulting in up to 400%
> speed increases in some complex queries.
>
> - The implementation of an SQL99 compliant Information Schema,
> providing developers with database, type, object, and
> configuration information in a standards compliant way.
>
> - Now supports Statement level triggers, enabling developers and
> users to define and customize behavior of the database when data is
> stored and manipulated.

Remove "Now supports", since it doesn't follow from 'version 7.4
include...'.

>
> - Read only transactions, bringing a greater level of security to web and
> enterprise applications by protecting data from modification.
>
> - Optional explicit join rewriting by the query planner, easing the
> transition of existing applications and queries running on Sybase and MS
> SQL Server.
>
> - Takes full advantage of large (>4GB) memory configurations on
> numerous 64 bit platforms including AMD Opteron, HP/Compaq Alpha,
> Sun UltraSPARC, MIPS, PA-RISC, and RS6000*

>4GB -> 'greater than 4 GB'

>
> Other improvements include:
> - Performance improvements for data warehousing
> - Enhanced implementation of functional indexes
> - Addition of polymorphic function arguments and return types
> - Significant enhancements to array data types
> - Completely overhauled and simplified documentation
> - Improved vacuum process to manage indexes for high availability databases
> - An auto-vacuum feature to help simplify database maintenance
> - Updated multi-byte regular expression package for international users
> - New wire protocol (version 3) increases the speed of data transfers
> - Now supports both row level and statement level triggers
> - A new ranked preference system for the TSearch full text indexing module.
>
> As well as many other features and improvements.
>
> "If you tried PostgreSQL before, and went with a commercial database like
> Oracle or DB2 instead, it's time to re-evaluate," says Rod Taylor of Inquent
> Technologies. "PostgreSQL's performance has improved tremendously over the
> last two years and this, along with its enterprise level feature set, make
> PostgreSQL competitive with even the highest-end database systems."

Some more quotes would be great. Bruce, Tom, Peter, anyone?

Its looking good but.

g