On 13 Mar 2007, at 15:57, Pete Harlan wrote:
> The reason I didn't look into doing that originally is that it's such
> an obvious thing to implement that I assumed by its absence that there
> are fundamental reasons why it hadn't been done. (E.g., if adding
> that functionality required a non-backwards-compatible change to the
> on-disk format for table schemas, or if the SQL spec disallows
> defaults for blob columns.)
I consulted our language-lawyer about it, and the syntax is indeed
legal. As for on-disk format, I'm unsure, but I suspect it's okay.
>> Do you think you'd be interested in working on it?
>
> I am brand-new to looking at the MySQL source. I'm comfortable and
> experienced with C++ and development generally, but if someone with
> more MySQL experience and/or more time also is interested in that
> project, that might make more sense than my doing it.
Well, this list, internals@, is the place to offer that. Maybe give
this topic a few days for people to digest it and chat about it, and
if no one offers to steal it from you by ...Friday?, then it's yours.
> If I am to work on it, is there internal documentation besides the
> source code itself that might assist me? It's not necessary, but if
> there is, that could help.
There are a few docs, but I don't know of much that would help with
this. You'll take a tour through the parser, and then the SQL layer,
and maybe touch the storage engine interface. Frankly, those are the
parts of the server that are easiest to understand, speaking
personally. Additionally, some of us hang out on Freenode in #mysql-
dev, so we're close by if you want to complain about something. :)
> Also, the free BitKeeper client isn't particularly useful. It's fine
> for pulling the latest sources, but it doesn't look like you can use
> it to, e.g., show uncommited changes you have made to your working
> tree. If I am going to develop more than just a tiny patch, I'll want
> to use real version control. [...]
Ha! You're poking a sore spot for me. I sympathize, Pete, and want
to do something about it, but whatever I do is not likely to bear
fruit in the next few months.
For the moment, may I suggest importing a snapshot of the code into
your favorite and working from that? "mercurial" and "bazaar-ng" are
popular, I hear.
- chad
--
Chad Miller, Software Developer chad@stripped
MySQL Inc., www.mysql.com
Orlando, Florida, USA 13-20z, UTC-0500
Office: +1 408 213 6740 sip:6740@stripped
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