Re: [I|S]CONST/[I|S]const in gram.y

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 01:41:23PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> I experimented with doing this and found that things seemed noticeably
> uglier; for example in createdb_opt_item we have (ignoring the actions)
>
> | TEMPLATE opt_equal name
> | TEMPLATE opt_equal DEFAULT
> | ENCODING opt_equal Sconst
> | ENCODING opt_equal Iconst
> | ENCODING opt_equal DEFAULT
> | COLLATE opt_equal Sconst
> | COLLATE opt_equal DEFAULT
>
> which'd become
>
> | TEMPLATE opt_equal name
> | TEMPLATE opt_equal DEFAULT
> | ENCODING opt_equal SCONST
> | ENCODING opt_equal ICONST
> | ENCODING opt_equal DEFAULT
> | COLLATE opt_equal SCONST
> | COLLATE opt_equal DEFAULT
>
> which at least to me seems confusing --- the ICONST and SCONST
> occurrences look like literal keywords rather than token classes.
> So I find I have a mild preference for the mixed-case spelling.

Fine with me too. Actually I don't think we'll waste a lot of cpu cycles when
keeping the Iconst/Sconst rules as they are.

> One possible way to shave the cycles and still have it look nice
> is to rename the actual tokens produced by scan.l to Iconst and Sconst;
> but this might be more trouble than it's worth. Thoughts?

I agree that this is not worth it. After all the mixed-case spelling looks like
a non-terminal and at some point people will spend time looking to the rules
defining these non-terminals.

Michael
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