Top all-time · #1426
Dimitri Fontaine
Personal blog · tapoueh.org/blogdataprogramming
Dimitri Fontaine's personal blog at tapoueh.org covers data and programming. Since 2012, 50 different Hacker News readers have linked it 83 times, most often “Why is pgloader so much faster? (2014)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-13, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (27) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Dimitri Fontaine's blog for PostgreSQL and SQL material, such as window functions and LISTEN/NOTIFY, and for the post on rewriting pgloader from Python to Common Lisp, cited as a 20-30x speedup.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Commenters call the window functions article a good tutorial they always link, say the SQL and business logic explanation is nice, and recommend the blog and bo
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 27 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Dimitri Fontaine on PostgreSQL, SQL technique, and the craft of data — talks, articles, and open-source work.
Most-linked posts?
- Why is pgloader so much faster? (2014)6 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2019-03-06
- PostgreSQL Listen/Notify3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-07-19
- Understanding (SQL) Window Functions3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-09-11
- PostgreSQL Data Types: Date, Timestamp, and Time Zones2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-04-12
- Database Modelization Anti-Patterns2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-03-09
- Dimitri Fontaine: Ten years of Postgres logical replication2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-23
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-09-28
- Turn your PostgreSQL queries into Charts2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-08-25
- Plan Advice in PostgreSQL 192 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-17
- /blog/2017/11/mastering-postgresql-in-application-development-launches/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-11-06
What Hacker News says?
Hy made me reconsider Lisps and I'm glad it did. I'm now using CL quite a lot. It's possible to use Python libraries from CL: - there is py4cl and async-process: https://github.com/CodyReichert/awesome-cl#python - NumCL is a clone of Numpy: https://github.com/numcl/numcl Common Lisp has many advantages though: - you can build a self-contained binary of your app, including web app. It's such a breeze to deploy, and i…
Comment linking /blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-faster/
on “Hy”Submitted Aggregating NBA data, PostgreSQL vs MongoDB as a story · 54 points
HN discussionIt's maybe not a great post, it was just one that came up when I searched. > JDBC driver cannot receive asynchronous notifications. Maybe their example is limited by the choice of client library. This might be a better example? https://tapoueh.org/blog/2018/07/postgresql-listen-notify/ Or the offical postgres docs are: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/sql-notify.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/sql-listen.h…
Comment linking /blog/2018/07/postgresql-listen-notify/
on “Lesser-known Postgres features”Submitted Understanding PostgresSQL window functions (2013) as a story · 21 points
HN discussionHello, Some Common Lisp success stories: https://lisp-lang.org/success/ pgloader was rewritten from Python to CL: https://tapoueh.org/blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-fas... Some companies still pick and use CL: Rigetti Computing (quantum computing), 3E (realtime aggregation and alerting engine of sustainable energy systems), OpusModus, an award-winning music composition software, ScoreCloud, an impressive speac…
Comment linking /blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-faster/
on “I’ve Consed Every Pair”Submitted PostgreSQL Data Types: Date, Timestamp, and Time Zones as a story · 16 points
HN discussionI wish them well but fear this won't work out for them. This sounds like a smart move until you realize that they are just one of many players in a crowded market and that this actually decreases their value proposition for end users and external contributors. Having less of both is bad news for an OSS project, no matter how you spin it. The way I see it this type of company has a short term value that derives from…
Comment linking /blog/2018/07/postgresql-concurrency-isolation-and-locking/
on “Relicensing CockroachDB”Submitted PostgreSQL: Modeling for Concurrency as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI always link to this article: http://tapoueh.org/blog/2013/08/20-Window-Functions
Comment linking /blog/2013/08/20-Window-Functions
on “Ask HN: What is the best online resource to learn advanced SQL?”Submitted “Scaling Python” released as a story · 5 points
HN discussionNot really feeling sold on this. It's called "Mastering PostgreSQL" but the site reads like it's trying to convince beginner programmers that SQL iteself is useful. Even the case made here: http://tapoueh.org/blog/2017/11/mastering-postgresql-in-appl... seems like it would only be convincing to someone who has never had to write much SQL and also has not already had to do a pattern like that in an API call.
Comment linking /blog/2017/11/mastering-postgresql-in-application-development-launches/
on “Mastering PostgreSQL in Application Development”Submitted PostgreSQL Concurrency: Computing and Caching as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAs someone that cares greatly about the Postgres ecosystem there aren't nearly enough books out there, so really excited to see this one come to life. Instead of targeting DBAs the focus on app devs is very refreshing so that people can start to leverage more of the awesome in Postgres. I haven't yet read the book myself but absolutely will. If you're curious to read some of Dimitri's writing ahead of time his blog…
Comment linking /
on “Mastering PostgreSQL in Application Development”Submitted PostgreSQL Concurrency: Isolation and Locking as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSo that you can receive updates if I make some. You don't have to, though, read http://tapoueh.org/blog/2017/11/mastering-postgresql-in-appl... where you will find the full Table of Contents, or just buy the book ;-)
Comment linking /blog/2017/11/mastering-postgresql-in-application-development-launches/
on “Mastering PostgreSQL in Application Development”Submitted Setting up psql, the PostgreSQL CLI as a story · 4 points
HN discussionFor windows functions a good tutorial can be found at http://tapoueh.org/blog/2013/08/20-Window-Functions Postgresql also has good support for SQL-99 : http://www.slideshare.net/MarkusWinand/modern-sql WITH clauses (CTE) are great, but they are "optimization fences" in Postgresql : http://blog.2ndquadrant.com/postgresql-ctes-are-optimization...
Comment linking /blog/2013/08/20-Window-Functions
on “PostgreSQL Magic”Submitted Aggregating NBA Data, PostgreSQL vs. MongoDB (2014) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI can name one :) pgloader https://tapoueh.org/blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-fas... I'd use Electron with Ceramic, not the GUI bindings. Or maybe Nuklear. But I would build personal projects with them. ML: yeah, yeah. Just to show there have been work on it, that (of course) the platform is capable.
Comment linking /blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-faster/
on “Modern, functional Common Lisp: myths and best practices”Submitted Why is pgloader so much faster? (2014) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSome pointers: Scorecloud ( https://scorecloud.com/ ), a music composition software (you sing, it writes music) comes from research, and is built in Common Lisp. pgloader was rewritten from Python to Lisp: https://tapoueh.org/blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-fas... because of Python's poor performances and threading capacities. A theorem prover used in the industry: https://github.com/acl2/acl2 A Lisp vendor sel…
Comment linking /blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-faster/
on “Ask HN: I want to start learning Lisp. Where do I begin?”Submitted PostgreSQL Listen/Notify as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf you namedrop something always link https://tapoueh.org/
Comment linking /
on “Sqlfmt: an opinionated online SQL formatter”Submitted PostgreSQL Concurrency: Data Modification Language as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI think you misunderstood how timestamps work in PostgreSQL. Timestamptz is always saved as UTC. Only in exceptional cases where you need to store something in local time, such as a scheduled event that is not in UTC, you should use the timestamp WITHOUT TZ. This is also what well-known PostgreSQL developers recommend: https://tapoueh.org/blog/2018/04/postgresql-data-types-date-...
Comment linking /blog/2018/04/postgresql-data-types-date-timestamp-and-time-zones/
on “Timestamps and Time Zones in PostgreSQL (2016)”Submitted PostgreSQL: Queen, Princesses, and Workers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI'm told by one of the FOSDEM PGDAY conference organizers: "I believe they won't be". Sorry about that. The slides are going to be available on http://tapoueh.org/ and http://pgloader.io/ though.
Comment linking /
on “Pgloader: A High-speed PostgreSQL Swiss Army Knife, Written in Lisp”Submitted PostgreSQL and the calendar as a story · 3 points
HN discussionpgloader [0] is one example. Interestingly, it was originally written in Python, but the author decided to rewrite the entire thing in Common Lisp due mainly to Python's poor performance and the lack of native thread support. The result Common Lisp version is 30 times faster than the old Python one. More info can be found in the author's blog post [1]. [0] https://pgloader.io/ [1] https://tapoueh.org/blog/2014/05/wh…
Comment linking /blog/2014/05/why-is-pgloader-so-much-faster/
on “Let over Lambda – Common Lisp Book (2008)”Submitted PostgreSQL HyperLogLog as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
