Why mentor Postgres developers with Robert Haas

02/07/25 • 86 min

Nobody works on an open-source project forever—eventually, people move on. So of course today's Postgres contributors want to see more developers join the project, pick up the torch, and continue to make Postgres amazing. Hence the importance of mentorship. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, PostgreSQL major contributor and committer Robert Haas shares how he learned the ropes in Postgres by channeling “what would Tom Lane do” during patch reviews; why he launched the new PostgreSQL Hackers Mentoring program; and the intellectually stimulating care and feeding it takes to make Postgres thrive.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast episode: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman
Slide: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres, including new mentoring program
Blog post: New Mentoring Program for Code Contributors in Postgres, by Robert Haas
Blog post: Postgres Mentoring Program Updates, by Robert Haas
Discord invite for PostgreSQL Hacker Mentoring server: https://discord.gg/bx2G9KWyrY
Bio: Margo Seltzer, the PGConf.dev 2024 keynote speaker
Video: PGConf.dev 2024 panel discussion about Making PostgreSQL Hacking More Inclusive with Amit Langote, Masahiko Sawada, Melanie Plageman, & Robert Haas
Mailing list: PostgreSQL Hackers
Upcoming Conference: PGConf.dev 2025, the annual PostgreSQL Development Conference happening in Montreal Canada on May 13-16, 2025
Blog: Postgres committer Tomas Vondra’s Blog - Look for [PATCH IDEA]
Video of Talk: CMUDB Database talk about PostgreSQL Optimizer Methodology, by Robert Haas
Podcast episode: How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with David Rowley
Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep25 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Mar 12, 2025 with guest Dawn Wages of the Python developer community

Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast episode: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman
Slide: PGConf EU 2024 talk by Claire Giordano about Contributions to Postgres, including new mentoring program
Blog post: New Mentoring Program for Code Contributors in Postgres, by Robert Haas
Blog post: Postgres Mentoring Program Updates, by Robert Haas
Discord invite for PostgreSQL Hacker Mentoring server: https://discord.gg/bx2G9KWyrY
Bio: Margo Seltzer, the PGConf.dev 2024 keynote speaker
Video: PGConf.dev 2024 panel discussion about Making PostgreSQL Hacking More Inclusive with Amit Langote, Masahiko Sawada, Melanie Plageman, & Robert Haas
Mailing list: PostgreSQL Hackers
Upcoming Conference: PGConf.dev 2025, the annual PostgreSQL Development Conference happening in Montreal Canada on May 13-16, 2025
Blog: Postgres committer Tomas Vondra’s Blog - Look for [PATCH IDEA]
Video of Talk: CMUDB Database talk about PostgreSQL Optimizer Methodology, by Robert Haas
Podcast episode: How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with David Rowley
Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep25 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Mar 12, 2025 with guest Dawn Wages of the Python developer community

Previous Episode

How I got started as a developer & in Postgres with Daniel Gustafsson

March 5th 2005 at 3 PM in Copenhagen. That’s the exact time and place Daniel Gustafsson’s career took an unexpected turn, pivoting from operating systems to databases. At LinuxForum that day, Daniel had planned to meet up with the FreeBSD community, but a chance session about Postgres by Bruce Momjian completely blew his mind. By the time Daniel was on the train back to Malmö, he was already compiling Postgres. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, Postgres major contributor and committer Daniel Gustafsson of Microsoft walks us through how he got his start as a developer and in Postgres—starting with his earliest computing memories of a hulking steel box in his family’s living room in Sweden. Also part of Daniel’s story: guitar tuning software. And curl!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Wikipedia: ABC 80
Wikipedia: mSQL
Wikipedia: PCBoard BBS (bulletin board system) application
Conference back in 2010: CHAR(10) – Clustering, HA and Replication Conference
Wikipedia: IRIX operating system
Internet Archive Wayback Machine link: LinuxForum Conference Agenda from March 5, 2005 with Bruce Momjian’s 3:00pm talk about Postgres
Podcast: Solving every data problem in SQL with Dimitri Fontaine & Vik Fearing
Conference: Nordic PGDay 2025 to happen Mar 18th in Copenhagen
Conference: All Things Open 2025 to happen Oct 12-14 in Raleigh NC
Conference: PGConf.dev 2025 to happen May 13-16 in Montreal, Canada
CFP: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2025 CFP open until Feb 9 2025 (it’s a virtual event)
Slides from PGConfEU 2024 Talk: What’s in a Postgres major release? An analysis of contributions in v17 timeframe
Video of PGConf EU 2024 Talk: Analysis of contributions in the v17 timeframe, by Claire Giordano
Book recommendation: The Dragon Book, a.k.a. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
Book recommendation: The Purple Book (or, Wizard Book), a.k.a. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)
Book recommendation: The Practice of Programming by Kernighan & Pike
Calendar invite: LIVE recording of Ep24 of Talking Postgres podcast to happen on Wed Feb 05, 2025 with guest Robert Haas

Next Episode

Why Python developers just use Postgres with Dawn Wages

When I found out that Django developer and Python Software Foundation chair Dawn Wages has a chapter in her upcoming Domain-Driven Django book called “Just Use Postgres”, I knew we had to get her on the show. In this episode of Talking Postgres with Claire Giordano, Dawn breaks down why so many Python and Django developers have such an affinity for Postgres. And we dive into the Djangonaut Space mentoring program (where contributors launch), learn why “free as in puppies” beats “free as in cake” for open source vibes, and dig into why Python is the second-best language for everything.

Links mentioned in this episode: