Re: Why new features only in magior releases ?

Gaetano Mendola wrote:
> I well understand the reason to wait a 7.5 in order to delivery
> BIG changes that are requiring a initdb, but I don't understand
> why little enhancement can not be delivered in a 7.4.3 ( may be
> with a short period with a 7.4.3beta ) like the "vacuum delayed".

I don't think this is a good idea.

It would risk destabilizing a known-to-be-stable release series. It is 
very important that we keep 7.4.x a platform that people feel 
comfortable deploying in a production environment.

It would also require additional development resources to back port the 
changes, and do the (fairly extensive) testing required to verify that 
they haven't caused any regressions (see the point about stability 
above). We have a finite amount of development resources, and I think 
the past consensus is that they are best spent developing for the next 
major release.

> I think that delivering some improvements in the 7.4.3 will permit
> to delay a month the 7.5 without the pain to wait too long for some
> enhancements.

Even without new features in 7.4, I don't really see the danger of a 
slow-paced 7.5 release: production environments aren't eager to upgrade 
their DBMS every six months, and the pain of an initdb applies no matter 
how frequently we make major releases.

-Neil