Re: JBoss w/int8 primary keys in postgres ...

Paul Thomas <paul@tmsl.demon.co.uk> writes:
> I think the first big hurdle is going to be making them realize that with
> CMP there _is no_ SQL source to modify in the first place. Yes, I think
> you need to petition hackers and maybe x-post to advocacy too - there are
> also people there who need to be made aware that PostgreSQL has a serious
> Achilles heel as an enterprise database!

<rolls eyes>  Do you think we have not heard about the datatype-mismatch
issue ten thousand times before?  Don't waste our time with "petitions".
Give us a practical way to fix it (ie, one that doesn't create more
problems than it solves).  See for example
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2002-11/msg00468.php
as a recent discussion of the pitfalls involved.

It occurred to me this afternoon that we might be able to improve
matters for int8 without necessarily fixing the general problem.
The problems cited in the above message mostly stem from trying to
type small constants as int2 so that "int2col = 42" is indexable.
Once upon a time it seemed that was where the hot buttons were, but
if your hot button is mostly int8, maybe we could fix that by removing
the int8-vs-int4 cross-type operators, and not touch the initial typing
of integer literals just yet.  Does someone want to explore the
consequences of trying that?

            regards, tom lane