Re: Do we need "Diagnostics" sections of SQL command reference pages?

On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 17:37:50 -0400,
Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> I'm starting to look at updating the docs to match 7.4 error message
> spellings. I find that a large part of the work I'll have to do is in
> updating the "Diagnostics" (formerly "Outputs") section of the command
> reference pages. I am wondering if it wouldn't be better to just rip
> out these sections entirely. They seem like nearly content-free fluff
> to me --- the listings of possible error messages are always incomplete,
> often out of date, and arguably useless. If there is an error message
> that's not clear enough by itself, we'd better fix the error message
> instead of putting a gloss on it in the reference page.
>
> Comments?

I think that a listing of possible error messages essentially indexed by
command isn't very useful.

However some of the documentation in that section is useful. In particular
the information for INSERT covers stuff that isn't self explanatory in the
output message.