Having trouble startin off with the code..

Hi all,

I am new user of postgres..  I am currently working on a project
for my advisor and the project is to implement an algorithm for 
materialiazed view design as explained in this paper 
[http://www.vldb.org/conf/1997/P136.PDF - MVPP Generation part and sec 
4.1 for selecting views as such.. ]

This project is a part of the bigger project and hence i want to 
implement the algorithm rather than using already existing functionality 
in postgres..  I have read various documents about postgres but have not 
looked into the source code.. hence currently, i am [only] familiar with 
higher level details and not the data structures..

As i understand from the paper, the only reason i am using postgres is 
to be able to get ALL POSSIBLE JOIN PLANS from optimizer.. other than 
this my algorithm is self sufficient.. Hence i would like to know what 
is the best way to go about implementing the algorithm.. Here are my 
thougths..

1. I can implement it as a "command" in postgres... I donno the exact 
steps for this, but understand that it requires modifying a LOT of files ..

2. I can write my own standalone code, if i could invoke postgres with 
my query from the code and be able to access optimizer to get list of 
all possible join plans ? is it possible to do this? How do i invoke 
postgres from C code?

3. Is there any other way of doing this?

I would also like to know your rough guess on the time i would take to 
do the interfacing with postgres? [ i am above average C programmer.. 
pretty good in pointers.. but this is my first exposure to open source 
database..]

I REALLY need help on this and would appreciate if you could help me 
figure this out..

Thanks in advance,
Gayathri TK