BETA

I think it might be time to think about shipping a beta release.  I
guess this is a -core decision, but I can't argue for it there, so
I'll argue for it here.  It seems like we're about ready, so maybe we
could plan for a beta, say, a week from now?

Here's a quick run-down of the remaining open items at
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_9.0_Open_Items ...

- Fix to_char('L') (localization) on Win32 when the operating system
character encoding does not match the database encoding
Seems like we're close to a fix on this, but even if not, I don't see
why this should be considered a blocker for beta.

- Thread safety and libxml2
A proposed patch is available, but nobody seems to care enough to
bother testing it, so I can't get excited about postponing beta for
it.

- fix flight of fancy in InitPostgres
Tom is looking at this, so it will be fixed in 17 microseconds.

clarify HS error message when WAL settings are no good
- This is just a case of adjusting an error message, no reason we
can't wrap it up in the next couple of days.

Improve behavior of SUSET GUC variables added by loadable modules?
- Tom's looking at this, too.

The replication connections consume superuser_reserved_connections slots.
- I will fix this.

Tuning of KnownAssignedXids module
- This is important, but Simon has a patch he thinks will fix it.
Could use some more testing, but again, no reason this can't get done
in the next week.

There are also two "documentation" issues listed; but I believe these
can wait for 9.0 final.   Greg Smith tells me he's still cranking away
at figuring out what advice we can best offer.

/me pushes luck

And how about a set of back-branch releases while we're at it?

/me also volunteers to help, assuming anyone thinks that any of the
above is a good idea

...Robert