On 02/08/07, Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org wrote:
It might not hurt to do some basic approximations here: do the EXPLAIN estimate, then if it's a smallish value, go ahead and grab an exact count.
Proof that great minds think alike; Tim Starling proposed the exact same thing less than two months ago when I was pondering "out loud" removing the count altogether.
What would be more useful would be a historical graph showing the rise and fall of the queue size. That would help people to avoid freaking out when it's briefly large due to activity.
I'm going to assume you mean this in the manner of a casual Wikimedia project, perhaps something for the Toolserver...?
Rob Church