I've read through the archive for the list about server side sorting and
wanted to add my own impressions...
Quick disclaimer, I am a perl programmer using Net::LDAP and don't think I
could contribute a patch to OpenLDAP since I am not versed in C(++).
Server side sorting is a huge gain for LDAP application programmers (like
myself). It saves the effort of having to store the results (in memory)
in order for them to be sorted. I guess the equivalent would be like not
having sorted results for SQL queries.
Much of the perception seems to be that this is an LDAP server for account
management and authentication. True, but LDAP has many uses, one of
which is an email/contact directory where clients perform searches
against it and would like to see sorted results.
I myself have a copy of OpenLDAP running on my PC with all of my contacts
in it and wrote a front end to do lookups. Yes it's the hard way to do
things, but I learned how to use OpenLDAP and Net::LDAP....
I can't imagine this is rocket science to code, and there is an RFC out
there (RFC-2891) which shows the guidelines for this control..
Maybe we should offer bounties for the one to code this? I'd be willing
to donate to the cause...