Re: Direct Toast PoC

On Wed, Jul 29, 2026 at 09:13:47PM +0200, Hannu Krosing wrote:
> I would like to propose a design and prototype implementation for a new
> TOAST format, which we are calling **Direct TOAST**.
> Not a big change, just leaving out the index part.
> Hopefully this gives TOAST another 25-30 years :)

I am going to be honest here, but I think beginning a thread this way
is sloppy. First, the entire email and its contents are entirely
AI-generated, perhaps you have spent some time double-checking the
contents of the message but it does not give this impression at all;
at least you are being honest regarding the code by saying that you
have *not looked at the code at all*. And even if the code is
generated, looking at the result is the first thing you should try to
do, especially if you are asking people to look at it.

Relying on such tools is a trend these days, and that's fine because
LLM models are tools and they can be terribly efficient when used
well, but it does not change the review and lookup part (Postgres
committers do that). Some people seem to have success with such
tools, which is also fine. But please, if you plan to ask people to
spend some time on what you are doing, the least you can do is to give
the impression that you have yourself spent some time on the actual
code. I cannot speak for others, but beginning a thread this way
discourages me entirely to look at what you have sent.

Okay, spoiler: I did look at the code, and your LLM has just been
hard-coding a new vartag_external, plumbing it into the TOAST
internals without caring about any concept of backward-compatibility.
Posting patches based on HEAD and not a stable branch would be a
better idea, as well, as a starter. I understand that this is a POC,
still.

Please do not take it bad, this is just my opinion. I think that
time is the most important resource we have. It is limited. However,
beginning a thread this way does not give the impression that you
value the time of other people at all.

My 2c.
--
Michael