Re: Friendly help for psql

From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>
To: pgsql-patches(at)postgresql(dot)org
Cc: "Greg Sabino Mullane" <greg(at)turnstep(dot)com>
Subject: Re: Friendly help for psql
Date: 2008-01-20 22:55:54
Message-ID: 200801202355.54739.peter_e@gmx.net
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Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:
> No. While the original poster may have been making a separate comparison
> to MySQL, I can assure you that my impetus for doing this is not being
> driven by the behavior of the mysql client.

Then what is the motivation for this? We have many sources of help. I have
never heard of any user not being able to find help.

> Having "help" do something
> other than throw a syntax error is a very common feature in many
> interactive programs, for example openssl, gdb, ftp, bash, mail,
> telnet, and vim.

The difference with these tools is that they don't already tell you how to get
help when you log in.

Now I have actually thought for a while whether we could get rid of the login
text altogether. I would support trading that for extended help options.
But if the login note is there, then we don't need more help options.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

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