Re: [HACKERS] [PROPOSAL] Temporal query processing with range types

On 1/13/17 9:22 AM, Peter Moser wrote:
> The goal of temporal aligners and normalizers is to split ranges to allow a
> reduction from temporal queries to their non-temporal counterparts.
> Splitting
> ranges is necessary for temporal query processing. Temporal aligners and
> normalizer may then be used as building-blocks for any temporal query
> construct.

I would need to see the exact definitions of these constructs.  Please
send some documentation.

> We have published two papers, that contain formal definitions and
> related work
> for the temporal aligner and normalizer. Please see [1] and [2].

I don't have access to those.

>> I think there are probably many interesting applications for normalizing
>> or otherwise adjusting ranges.  I'd like to see an overview and
>> consideration of other applications.
> 
> Please see the attached file adjustment.sql for some interesting
> applications.

That's surely interesting, but without knowing what these operations are
supposed to do, I can only reverse engineer and guess.

>> Ideally, I'd like to see these things implemented as some kind of
>> user-space construct, like an operator or function.  I think we'd need a
>> clearer definition of what it is they do before we can evaluate that.
> 
> Can you please explain what you mean by "user-space construct" in this case.

Implement them using the extensibility features, such as a user-defined
operator.  I don't know if it's possible, but it's something to consider.

Using common terms such as ALIGN and NORMALIZE for such a specific
functionality seems a bit wrong.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut              http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services