Re: [RFC] allow 'semester' in functions EXTRACT, DATE_PART, TO_CHAR and so on.

"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> On Friday, August 14, 2015, Dickson S. Guedes <listas(at)guedesoft(dot)net> wrote:
>> The term is used in a school or college to represent a half-year.

> I quite dislike semester because of its connotations in education and the
> fact that actual semesters do not align with calendar halves.

It's worse than that: some institutions use "semester" for third-of-a-year
intervals (also called trimesters). I've also heard of places that use a
fairly standard Sept-to-May calendar but call summer classes a third
"semester", even though it's shorter than their regular class sessions.

I don't think we should accept a patch along this line, because it assigns
a very specific meaning to "semester" that does not square all that well
with real-world usage.

regards, tom lane