PostgreSQL and DBD::Pg requirements for 1.4 and later

["Chris Travers" <..hidden..>]

Hi all;

Normally I would like to see us harmonize our PostgreSQL dependencies
with the PostgreSQL distribution from the web site.  I.e. we should
eventually hope to support all versions which are publically supported
on the PostgreSQL.org site.  However, there are cases where we need to
think about dropping support for some older versions when the benefits
outweigh the interest of long-term support for PostgreSQL versions.

PostgreSQL 8.3 changes a number of things from the standpoint of our
application:

1)  Changes in full-text search

Since the full-text support were changed, this makes support for both
pre-8.3 and 8.3 and above difficult and more complex from a QA
perspective.  In think that given the choice, I would rather require
8.3 and above, and reduce the possibiity of bugs.

2)  Greater support for complex data types as arguments.

In my view this is an even larger issue.  One of the difficulties that
we wil run into in 1.4 is an enforcement of the idea that transactions
must be balanced.  The only way we can enforce this in a maintainable
way IMO is by doing proper checking in the stored procedure interface.
 This means that we must have a way to pass this data in to the
function in a varifiable way.  2-dimensional arrays IMO are not as
maintainable as arrays of complex data types.  In this model, we could
create a GL transaction, and pass in an array of transaction line
items (account, amount, etc).   In this way, we could quickly sum up
the amount fields and make sure that it is 0.

Although arrays of complex data types pose other difficulties, the
technical side needs to be done only once and inherited out.

What do other people think?

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers