Re: PG 14 release notes, first draft

On 2021-May-20, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 02:55:18PM -0500, Justin Pryzby wrote:
> > On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 03:44:46PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > > > | Reduce the default value of vacuum_cost_page_miss (Peter Geoghegan)
> > > > | This new default better reflects current hardware capabilities.
> > > > Also say: the previous default was 10.
> > >
> > > Uh, we didn't report the new value, so why report the old one?
> >
> > Good point.
> > For symmetry with this one, maybe the old and new values should be included?
>
> Not sure. Those values are kind of hard to understand, so I am afraid
> there would be more confusion by mentioning them.
>
> > |Change checkpoint_completion_target default to 0.9 (Stephen Frost)
> > |The previous default was 0.5.
>
> Uh, that one is frequently modified by users, to an extent I didn't
> understand why we kept it at 0.5 for so long, which is why I mentioned
> it.

You also mentioned 'md5' in the entry about password_encryption,
remember? I tend to agree with Justin: if it's not too much extra space
to mention both values, let's just do that. "Reduce the value of X to Y
from Z. The new default better reflects ..." seems OK to me.

I prefer "to Y from Z" rather than "from Z to Y", because then the new
value appears first, which seems a tiny improvement in readability,
though the phrase is in the opposite order of traditional. Also it
seems better than "change value of X to Y. The previous default was Z"
because it then becomes a little more verbose than really needed. But
maybe that's OK too.

--
Álvaro Herrera 39°49'30"S 73°17'W
"La fuerza no está en los medios físicos
sino que reside en una voluntad indomable" (Gandhi)