June meeting recap!

Hi all!

For those of you who weren't at the BoF on Thursday:

6 regulars, a new person, and a couple of out-of-towners (Josh B and
Michael "Tuba" Brewer) were in attendance. Josh B gave us a quick
overview of 8.4. 293 (or 297!) new features. In addition to the big
stuff (like windowing functions) there are a ton of little
administrative tweaks. I am particularly excited about the new
functionality of \df - displays only user-defined fuctions.

Announcements:
PgDay is Saturday Sept 19 in Athens, GA! Make your plans now.

Michael Brewer highly recommends the use of a tuba as a booth prop.
Ask him to tell you the story.

Selena & I are working on PostgreSQL equivalents for the queries in
Stephan Faroult's _Refactoring SQL Applications_:
http://www.baconandtech.com/2009/06/06/book-review-part-i-refactoring-sql-applications-with-bonus-queries/

I was disappointed to learn that TrustTheVote is running on MySQL.
Granted, it's an improvement over current voting software, but maybe
we want to talk to them about running on a different, say, more
elephantine database?

Future plans:
Josh told us about the patch review process. You don't have to be able
to read C! If you can read the spec, apply the patch, verify that it
works, proof the docs - you can be a reviewer! All you need to do is
write a little report. Webb suggested PDXPUG have a patch review party
- sounds like a great idea to me! Also sounds like something we might
want to have a weekend meeting to do; I don't think 2 hours would be
enough time to be productive. Who's in?

gabrielle

> Josh told us about the patch review process. You don't have to be able
> to read C! If you can read the spec, apply the patch, verify that it
> works, proof the docs - you can be a reviewer! All you need to do is
> write a little report. Webb suggested PDXPUG have a patch review party
> - sounds like a great idea to me! Also sounds like something we might
> want to have a weekend meeting to do; I don't think 2 hours would be
> enough time to be productive. Who's in?

I am (duh, sort of). I think if we are going to do this we should
organize it around the commit cycle and let the developers know we are
going to do it -- and drop hints that maybe someone ca be on IRC while
it is going on.

If nobody else picks it up, I will organize it, but I haven't been
following hackers (or even general) lately (trying to use my time more
efficiently these days.... not very successfully....)

Does anyone know what day would be most helpful to the project?

W

Hi Mark and cc the list,

> I've been meaning to write for days.  I saw the pg-announce saying
> they are starting the first 8.5 commit fest.  Has anyone let you know?

I think we are going to shoot for the second commitfest, though if
anyone wants to chime in, feel free.

W

On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Webb Sprague<webb(dot)sprague(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi Mark and cc the list,
>
>> I've been meaning to write for days.  I saw the pg-announce saying
>> they are starting the first 8.5 commit fest.  Has anyone let you know?
>
> I think we are going to shoot for the second commitfest, though if
> anyone wants to chime in, feel free.

That is my understanding as well, though I am still unclear on the
precise timeline. It would be neat if we could have a patch review
party at our Sept meeting (the 17th) but that may not work out.

gabrielle

> .  It would be neat if we could have a patch review
> party at our Sept meeting (the 17th) but that may not work out.

I think to do real work, we probably need more time than a regular
meeting would allow.

On Jul 23, 2009, at 7:38 AM, Webb Sprague wrote:

>> . It would be neat if we could have a patch review
>> party at our Sept meeting (the 17th) but that may not work out.
>
> I think to do real work, we probably need more time than a regular
> meeting would allow.

I agree. While I imagine people are willing to get together for a
couple hours on a weekend, I wonder if people rather get together for
a few hours on a weekend.

Mark