Re: FWD: Re: Updated backslash consistency patch

From: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com>
To: Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>, pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com>, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net>, "Joshua D(dot) Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com>, Greg Sabino Mullane <greg(at)turnstep(dot)com>
Subject: Re: FWD: Re: Updated backslash consistency patch
Date: 2009-01-21 18:09:28
Message-ID: 20090121180928.GJ4038@alvh.no-ip.org
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Bruce Momjian escribió:

> But frankly, with a very complex backslash API that is already
> overloaded, I figured having a consistent 'S' to include system objects
> was the best we are going to be able to do. Once this is out in the
> field we might get new ideas.

I don't buy this argument. If we're going to break backwards
compatibility we should only do so to get a better UI. Not because "we
might get new ideas".

After all this discussion, I'm not sure I understand why is it so
important that all \ commands behave "consistently". Since psql is
primarily a user-convenience tool, it seems that it needs to be usable
first, consistent second. In most cases, usable means consistent (think
having the OK button at the same side of the Cancel button in all dialog
boxes), but this is one of the other cases, because the requirements for
some situations are clearly at odds in other situations (or as Peter
puts it: it is seldom useful to display pg_catalog tables, but it is
very often useful to display pg_catalog types).

--
Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

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