[development] Question on tracker query

[Narayan Newton]

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but I'm sure I'll be
informed quickly and forcefully if its not ;). I notice that one of the
tracker queries, specifically:

  $sql = 'SELECT DISTINCT(n.nid), n.title, n.type, n.changed, n.uid,
u.name, GREATEST(n.changed, l.last_comment_timestamp) AS last_updated,
l.comment_count FROM {node} n INNER JOIN {node_comment_statistics} l ON
n.nid = l.nid INNER JOIN {users} u ON n.uid = u.uid LEFT JOIN {comments}
c ON n.nid = c.nid AND (c.status = %d OR c.status IS NULL) WHERE
n.status = 1 AND (n.uid = %d OR c.uid = %d) ORDER BY last_updated DESC';

Is using a (in my opinion) rather dubious DISTINCT. Does this ever
actually do anything? Given I am not very familiar with the codebase,
but I at first glance at least...I just don't see it and its causing a
filesort for this query. Thoughts? Corrections? Flames?...Rabbits?

--Narayan Newton