postgresql/doc/TODO

====================================================
TODO list (FAQ) for Postgres95
====================================================
last updated:		Thu Oct  3 17:59:06 EDT 1996

current maintainer:	Bruce Momjian (maillist@candle.pha.pa.us)

The most recent version of this document can be viewed at
the postgres95 WWW site, http://www.ki.net/postgres95.

Dashed items(-) are being worked on or are ready for the 2.0 release.

RELIABILITY
-----------
-Overhaul mdmgr/smgr to fix double unlinking and double opens, cleanup
-Overhaul bufmgr/lockmgr/transaction manager
-	remove -S (stable memory) option or fix memory manager
-Memory leaks (hunt and destroy with tools like Purify)
-	fix unitialized reads of memory
-	fix array over-runs of memory writes
-Fix CLUSTER
-Prevent improper index creation
-Change default decimal constant representation from float4 to float8
-Allow libpq to distinguish between text value '' and null
-	using null bitmask returned from backend?
Fix all NULL features
	allow psql to print nulls meaningfully
-Starting quote in insert string errors
ALTER TABLE bug - running postgress process needs to re-read table definition
Allow non-postgres users with createdb privs to destroydb's
Prevent SELECT NULL from crashing server
	(error on first attempt, crash after another query)
-Fix elusive btree range/non-range bug
-Remove duplicate system catalog info or report mismatches
Fix compile and security of Kerberos V code
-Remove duplicate OIDS in system tables
Dropping a table twice causes corruption, drop/create not rollback-able
Change index creation to process deleted and current rows

ENHANCEMENTS
------------
Add full ANSI SQL capabilities ( a vendor has offered to help)
	add subselects, possibility using temporary SQL functions
	Implement HAVING clause
	Implement IN qualifier
	Implement EXISTS qualifier
	Implement BETWEEN qualifier
	add synonym of != for <>
	column constraints (using rules), esp. primary keys
	add DEFAULT, RESTRAINT, and CHECK capabilities
	-add UNIQUE index capability
	report "Not implemented" if valid syntax is supplied
	add OUTER joins, left and right
	make VIEWs updateable where possible
	add UNIONS, INTERSECTS, SUBTRACTS
	add temporary tables
	add assertions
	add domains
	add sql3 recursive unions
	add the concept of dataspaces
	allow conversion type casts on select target fields
Allow compression of large fields or a compressed field type
Fix the rules system
	robust
	making INSTEAD rules work
Full set of text operations and functions
	word searches, concat, upper/lower(), max() on text, char
-Replace table-level locking with row or page-level locking
Large objects
	overwriting blocks has problems
	there are other problems, too.
	Fix large object mapping scheme
	not to stuff everything as files in a single directory
Better interface for adding to pg_group
Make multi-field indexes easier to create
	allow optimizer to effectively use parameters without accessing table
Add int8 type
Add table comments
Add support for tables >2G
Incorporate the PERL PG95 interface library into source tree
Threaded version of the server or libpq
Allow libpq to cancel query requests
Add REGEX internationalization
Add other language types for built-in functions
	expand to allow tcl, perl, java,
	generalize the function manager switch to pass 
		function sources to interpreter engines.
-Re-visit and fix vacuum
-	can't vacuum large objects
-       can't shrink tables, pg_time and pg_log
-	allow actual compression, not just reuse on the same page
-	allow vacuum to be run on one table or entire database
	split apart row removal function from statistics function
	allow time-travel to be turned off so superceeded/deleted row are reused
-Reverse meaning of HBA masks
Add hostname/user level access control rather than just hostname and user
Allow BY,ORDER BY to specify columns by number, or by non-alias table.column
Allow GROUP BY to use alias column name
Remove restriction that ORDER BY field must be in SELECT list?
Allow queries about owner of datbases, tables like:
        SELECT u.usesysid FROM postgres.pg_user u;
DROP AGGREGATE should take in basetype as an arg
Add word index for text fields, maybe with trigrams, i.e.:
    ' (cat | dog) & ! fox ' meaning text has cat or dog, but not fox
Add common-sense constant type promotions
-Allow uppercase agregates by lowercasing function names on input
Allow readline-type or editor command editing of multi-line SQL commands
Allow pg_dump to dump all databases at a site in one command
-Allow restriction on who can create C functions
Allow restriction on who can create copy tables
-Allow installation-configuration option to auto-add all local users
Allow function result to be used in GROUP BY
-Fontend COPY
-Secure Authentication of local users
-Idend authentication of local users

PERFORMANCE
-----------
Optimizing disjunctive queries
Other optimizer bugs
Is fsync use optimized?
Multi-representational types, a la Illustra. For example, have a
       text type that is stored in-tuple when less than 8K and in large
       objects, when greater than 8K.
Use indexes in ORDER BY
Profile engine in INSERT's and other operations
Speed up hash creation by using btree's fast sort/insert routines
Cache most recent query plan(s?)
Allow compression of log and meta data
Allow LIKE/wildcard matches to use indexes if the wildcard character is not first

DOCUMENTATION
-------------
Update usermanual source
Reduce size of regression diffs

PORTABILITY
-----------
Windows NT port
	Mariposa project at Berkeley has a person who's working on this
Win95 port, use GNU port or remove it?
Binary distributions for linux
Merge bsdi_2_1 to bsdi
Merge i386_solaris and sparc_solaris into solaris
Switch from PORTNAME to individual feature defines (use configure/autoconf?)