The postgresql query optimization one is an interesting one. I've been very frustrated at times that you can't just tell it to use a certain index or a certain

The postgresql query optimization one is an interesting one. I've been very frustrated at times that you can't just tell it to use a certain index or a certain query plan. But at the same time, the data in the table can change over time. So for that particular problem, postgresql's superpower is it can optimize and reoptimize your query at runtime as the data changes! Not an easy thing to do in most programming languages. But I do agree with the rest of the article to a large extent. For some cases, you need a way to say "do this optimization, fail to compile if you cannot". Most of the time though, I just want the optimizer to do it's best, and don't have something in particular in mind. What if the compiler could output the optimization or transformations it does to a file? A file that was checked into source code. Think of lockfiles for dependencies. Or snapshot testing. I don't mean output the entire IR. I mean more a list of applied transformations. When those change, you could then be aware of those changes. Maybe it could act as an actual lockfile and constrain the compiler? Could it also double as a cache and save time?