Npgsql2 provider, version 2.0.7

The time has come, the long awaited version of Npgsql2 provider is released.

You may ask me about the reason, why it was being awaited for so long? The answer is: this summer our PostgreSql support team carried out a set of investigations and proposed some critical speed-related improvements to some parts of Npgsql2 provider source code and sent the patch to PgFoundry. The patch contains 2 optimizations:

1. Parameters handling in NpgsqlCommand.GetClearCommandText method. A set of parameters was stored in an array-based collection and linear search algorithm was used to find the requested one. This pattern is good enough for relatively small number of parameters but as you might know -- DataObjects.Net 4 uses Über-Batching Technology™, hence large number of parameters in one command might be achieved with ease. Using a dictionary to store and search for requested parameter speeded up this method up to 5 times (400% increment).
2. NpgsqlCommand contains static readonly Regex field which is used for splitting the entire command text into chunks. We suggested to add RegexOptions.Compiled to its initialization, which might increase the startup time but yields faster execution.

Both of them were accepted and merged into the main branch. So now, with the recent release of Npgsql2 provider version 2.0.7 which includes the above-mentioned changes, we can safely move to Npgsql2 provider in DataObjects.Net (Npgsql provider version 0.97 is currently used).

And last but not the least, we are proud to know that we made such a good contribution to a well-known, successful open source project such as Npgsql2 provider.