letters from the open source trenches - postgres community
DESCRIPTION
Community talk about the evolution of Postgres community, brief view of what's up for 9.1 and suggestions on how to get involved with us.TRANSCRIPT
Selena Deckelmann
PostgreSQL Global Development GroupMajor Contributor
User Group Liaison
We know the world is changing.
http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/microsoft-encarta-to-close/
“People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than the past.”
“Seven-Eleven Japan... pushes buying decisions down to the salesclerks at
its 13,000 Japanese stores.”
More than 200,000 salesclerks make informed decisions, using software
and the scientific method, about what to buy, and when.
Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2011“Leadership in IT, Four Questions Every CEO Should Ask About IT”
How do we get so many people to
collaborate?
• Revision control
• Peer review
• Public discussion forums
Ingredients
Open source pwns collaboration.
Postgrespwns collaboration that
produces awesome code.
What is Postgres?
• Database Management System
• Relational Database
• ANSI-SQL:2008 standard 160 of 179 core conformance features
• PostGIS
• Collaborative software development platform
http://www.postgresql.org/about/featurematrix
“An operating system without sound-drivers.”
Databases are:
What is the PostgreSQL Global Development Group?
PostgreSQL Global Development Group
• ~300 developers contribute per year
• 1000s on discussion/review mailing lists
• Major user group communities in Japan, US, Brazil, Europe, Russia
Who makes up the Postgres community?
Free SoftwareCommons
Co-Developer
ExtendingCo-Developer
Deployer-Developer
User
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/
Free SoftwareCommons
Co-Developer
ExtendingCo-Developer
Deployer-Developer
User
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/
}Postgres has alwaysfocused here
{Where weare growingthe fastest
Free SoftwareCommons
Co-Developer
ExtendingCo-Developer
Deployer-Developer
User
{WhereMySQLfocused
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/
}Where theyare growingnow
Some PostgreSQL Global Development Group Sponsors
All hiring, all seeking open source software skills.
Using PostgreSQL.
“[C]ommunities are composed of individuals who collaborate toward a common goal but do not share a common employer and are not governed by an employment hierarchy.”
The Role of Participation Architecture in Growing Sponsored Open Source CommunitiesJoel West and Siobhán O’Mahony
“Companies or foundations that run open source project are not software firms, they are community management firms whose communities happen to make software. “
http://eaves.ca/2006/12/17/community-management-as-open-sources-core-competency/
Proprietary Development
http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/adoption_and_trends.pdf
Open Source Development
http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/adoption_and_trends.pdf
• Revision control
• Peer review
• Public discussion forums
We require these tools.
Development work
• Revision control - We share our git repos: http://git.postgresql.org
• Peer review - our tool for patch review: http://commitfest.postgresql.org
• Public Discussion Forums - hackers list: [email protected]
Results
• Yearly releases
• Reputation for excellent code
• Growing developer community
• Reputation for rejecting patches
9.1 beta 1
(Monday!)
Key pre 9.1 Features
• Transactional DDL
• Recursive queries
• Built-in replication (async AND sync in 9.1)
• Multiple-language support for database-side programming
DO $$HAI BTW Calculate pi using Gregory-‐Leibniz series BTW This method does not converge particularly quickly... I HAS A PIADD ITZ 0.0 I HAS A PISUB ITZ 0.0 I HAS A ITR ITZ 0 I HAS A T1 I HAS A T2 I HAS A PI ITZ 0.0 I HAS A ITERASHUNZ ITZ 1000 IM IN YR LOOP T1 R QUOSHUNT OF 4.0 AN SUM OF 3.0 AN ITR T2 R QUOSHUNT OF 4.0 AN SUM OF 5.0 AN ITR PISUB R SUM OF PISUB AN T1 PIADD R SUM OF PIADD AN T2 ITR R SUM OF ITR AN 4.0 BOTH SAEM ITR AN BIGGR OF ITR AN ITERASHUNZ, O RLY? YA RLY, GTFO OIC IM OUTTA YR LOOP PI R SUM OF 4.0 AN DIFF OF PIADD AN PISUB VISIBLE "PI R: " VISIBLE PI FOUND YR PIKTHXBYE$$ LANGUAGE PLLOLCODE;
• Unlogged tables Less consistency for better performance with ephemeral data, and NoSQL buzzword compliance
• Writable Common Table ExpressionsRecursive queries that update data
• Per-Column CollationsTrue multi-language support (e.g. sorting words in Farsi and Swedish correctly in the same table, in separate columns)
Things other databases also do:Hot in 9.1!
• SE-PostgresMandatory Access Control integration with SE-Linux
• ExtensionsCREATE EXTENSION framework for easily installing, removing and updating extensions to Postgres.And launch of PGXN network: http://pgxn.org
Things we are first to do:Hot in 9.1!
• Synchronous replicationCreate synchronous standby databases to prevent data loss. Includes "transaction-controlled synchronous commit"
• SQL-MEDEasy-to-use remote data source access that enables transparent usage as a table (SELECT and JOIN)
• K-Nearest-Neighbor IndexingPermits doing an indexed search of "what's near me".
Things we are first to do:Hot in 9.1!
We still have bugs.
We still have an epic todo list.
We still need people of every ability.
So, how do you get involved?
Download 9.1 Beta 1!(on Monday)
Volunteer.Blog, answer email, join #postgresql, write documentation, test features,make things with Postgres, tweet,
help organize meetings, create olypug,give a talk, do a translation...
Change the world with us.
Credits:
Bruce Momjian (Proprietary vs Open Source development style)
Joshua Tolley (PL/LOLCODE)