Re: docs: clarify ALTER TABLE behavior on partitioned tables

Chao Li <li(dot)evan(dot)chao(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> PFA v10 - just integrated v9-0002-diff into the patch.

I do not like this patch *at all*. It removes the documentation
that enunciates the general principles ALTER is following, such as

- If a table has any descendant tables, it is not permitted to add,
- rename, or change the type of a column in the parent table without doing
- the same to the descendants. This ensures that the descendants always
- have columns matching the parent. Similarly, a <literal>CHECK</literal>

and replaces that with highly repetitive, explanation-free
statements like "Specifying <literal>ONLY</literal> is not allowed"
for each option. I don't see how this set of changes is an improvement.
It's also close to unreviewable, since it's so hard to see whether
those statements have been attached to all and only the proper
options.

If there's mistakes in the existing text, by all means let's fix
them. But this doesn't seem like the way to go about it.

By the by, I believe that our general project style is to leave a
blank line between <para> units. So I also don't approve of the
patch making a concerted effort to remove a lot of those blank
lines, especially when it's doing that to just one file.

regards, tom lane